~ Meteor Mashed! ~
Some time later which felt like a couple of decades, poor Tepig was still sitting in the Dance Zone. Before this, he already had an idea that Darwin wasn't going to return at all, but had also been trying not to believe that at the same time. He still had hope for her to return.
Not anymore.
It was basically a fact now: Darwin wasn't coming back.
He finally decided to stop just sitting there idly. Heck, he should just go anywhere he wanted. Just like Darwin. She was free to leave him and go anywhere she wanted, right? So it should be the same with him, right?
However, before he could even get off the bench, a Pokémon with white feathers like a fluffy cloud came over.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked.
Tepig looked at her. She had blue skin and was wearing a friendly smile.
"Oh, of course not." Tepig shook his head. He finally decided not to leave. If he did, the Pokémon would think that he was leaving because of her. The Pokémon sat on the other end of the bench.
A few seconds of silence ensued. Neither Tepig nor the new Pokémon could think of anything to say.
It was finally the Pokémon who broke the silence.
"Um, I'm sorry if I am so forward, but you are Tepig Pokabu, right? Darwin's friend in the Meteor Mash-up?"
"Well, yes," Tepig said, blinking. "And you are...?"
The Pokémon extended a fluffy white wing. "I am Altaria Cottonspores," she said.
Lopunny the Spy is by now ducking back into Chandelure's tent to get ready to meet Froslass and Gremlin, hoping that her plan would work. She was lucky to have bumped into Darwin's cotton-winged and tenderhearted friend. Now if only Altaria could pull it off nicely...
If she did, then Pairing 9 wouldn't be that much of a failure after all. After all, as Lopunny always says, "When in doubt, improvise!"
...
"Well, we're here!" Gremlin exclaimed once they had reached Chandelure's big tent. They went inside...
...and were immediately pounced on by Lopunny.
"Finally!" the rabbit exclaimed exasperatedly. "One of you meteor mashers decide to play Dance Inferno. What is it with you guys? I thought that on a special, romantic day like this, you would do something romantic like dancing, but oh no. I heard from Haxorus that two of you is playing Power Bash right now, and another pair is at Cofagrigus' Cake Contraption, but no one wants to play Dance Inferno. What's wrong with it, anyway? Is it because I'm not as interesting as Haxorus or Cofagrigus?"
Gremlin laughed good-naturedly, but Froslass didn't have time for any of this.
"Yes, we would like to play the attraction, please, Lopunny."
Lopunny shot Gremlin a look that said, "Wow, has she always been this uptight?" and Gremlin just shrugged with a sharp-toothed smile.
"OK, two passes into the Dance Inferno!" she sang. "Come right in! Since this is a special day, we're having a special version of the Dance Inferno right now! It's exactly like an ordinary dance competition. You don't have to follow my awesome moves; you have to come up with your own to match the music that's playing! Of course, you'll be dancing in pairs!" She winked. "I'm the judge, of course!"
She parted the curtains and led them into the tent. Gremlin and Froslass followed, the latter hissing, "I reckon she has always been this ditzy?" to which Gremlin shrugged and smiled again.
Twinkling fairy lights were hanging overhead, and there was the usual Dance Inferno stage, illuminated with multicolored strobe lights. Pokémon were standing around in pairs, talking and laughing. There was a Beautifly with a Dustox, a Bulbasaur and a Charmander, a Bellossom and a Vileplume, a Jynx and a Medicham, and many more Pokémon pairs.
The music that was playing was a classical music to keep to the romantic theme. As Gremlin looked around, Froslass was already beginning to sway to the music.
"I am very fond of this type of music," she said.
Before they knew it, Lopunny was already on the stage, wearing a cute version of a circus ringmaster's outfit and holding a microphone.
"All right, Pokémon!" she shouted. "Ready for the Dance Inferno?!"
Everyone in the tent stopped talking among themselves and turned their attention to Lopunny. "Yeah!"
"Well, OK! As you all know, I'm going to be the judge. Here's how it works. Chandelure is going to play song after song, and you have to dance in pairs to match every song. After a song ends, I'll announce the pairings who danced well enough to go on to the next song. We'll keep having dance-offs until there's only one pairing left!"
A murmur of excitement came from the crowd. They looked excited. Froslass looked perfectly calm.
"OK, everyone onto the stage!" Lopunny exclaimed. She went offstage to let everyone on, and once everyone was ready, she tossed her head at Chandelure. "Hit it, Chandelure!"
The music started.
Lopunny is really excited. Here is a Meteor Mash-up pairing, playing her attraction! (OK, so it's actually Chandelure's, but she's the star of the Dance Inferno, so yeah.) She can't wait to see Pairing 7: Gremlin x Froslass dance~!
...
Unlike some other pairings, Amelia and Treecko were in a polite and civilised conversation far from resembling possible bloodshed. Amelia had said that she only opened up to people she "quite liked", which left Treecko with a train of thoughts. She'd just opened up to him... so does that mean she "quite liked" him?
That was when he realized that it was his turn to say something.
"Ah... err... I'm... err... sorry," he finally stuttered. "Yeah, that sounds really... not... fun."
"Not fun"? Treecko, you are a genius, he seethed inwardly.
However, Amelia was laughing. "Treecko, you're cute when you're stammering," she said good-naturedly. "Hah, your face is red! You look like you just took a bath in tomato ketchup."
Luckily, Treecko was at that exact moment saved from more embarrassment by the arrival of Rem and Lombre. They were carrying two armloads of what seemed to be cakes and other sweet treats.
"Hello, you two," Lombre said. "Guess what I won in the Cake Contraption."
"We," Rem corrected. "Guess what we won in the Cake Contraption. No. What's more on the dot is 'Guess what I won in the Cake Contraption', because though it was a tie, I obviously had more flair." He turned to Treecko and Amelia. "She's only sharing the prize."
"Oh, you're such a sweet couple, aren't you," Amelia joked sarcastically.
Rem and Lombre managed an indignant "WE ARE NOT" before telling Treecko and Amelia what they were doing there with all their treats.
"Want to have them?" Lombre offered. "Rem and I have had our share, and we honestly can't eat any more. He's afraid of getting fat."
"You're the one who was afraid," Rem hissed.
By this time, luckily for our poor and socially rigid wood gecko, he had managed to put his collected act back on.
"I will have two slices of that red velvet cake, please," he said smoothly.
"And I'll have that cupcake, please," Amelia said, pointing at a cute little cupcake.
Rem and Lombre gaped at the little amount they were eating. "We thought you'd want all of it!" Lombre exclaimed.
Treecko told her that they really couldn't eat that much. "Besides, we've already ordered snacks," he went on.
Rem and Lombre still looked skeptical, but finally walked back into the Cake Contraption building carrying the rest of their prize. Treecko and Amelia watched them leave.
"They look like they're perfect for each other," Amelia joked. "They walk back into the cake building, and then Rem is going to surprise Lombre... with a food fight."
Treecko's eyes lit up with amusement. "I wouldn't put that past them," he agreed.
Stammering! Awkwardness! Oh, the fluff of it all! It's enough to make Lopunny's teeth hurt! However, she's ecstatic to see how well Treecko and Amelia are getting along with each other! Oh, those two are so adorable~!
A little while before all that, in that very Cake Zone but inside the cake-shaped building, Rem and Lombre had been given the pile of sweet treats as a prize for winning the Cake Contraption.
The funny thing was, Rem and Lombre seemed to completely forget about their argument the second they realized that the delicious treats were theirs.
"WHOOO! AWESOME!" they shouted, grabbing cupcakes of their favorite flavors (luckily, their favorite flavors are different. If not, you could be sure that another argument would have ensued).
For a while they amused themselves with stuffing sweets into their mouths, but as they always say, too much of anything is not good for you. At one point, both felt stuffed, but there were still so many sweets left over.
"What do you suppose we should do with all these cakes?" Lombre asked forlornly.
"You eat 'em. I'm full," Rem grumbled.
"No way!" Lombre protested. "I'll get fat."
Rem rolled his eyes as if he was thinking something around the lines of "girls will be girls."
That was when he got an idea. "Wait! We could give them to the pairing outside, the one having tea in that cafe. Whatsername... your friend Treecko and Amelia the Umbreon?"
"Oh yeah! Finally, you're thinking sense," Lombre joked, but she helped Rem gather the remaining cakes and take them outside.
...
Treecko took two slices of red velvet cake. Amelia took one cupcake, and that was it.
Lombre and Rem gaped at the tiny amount they were eating. "We thought you'd want all of it," Lombre said.
Treecko politely told them that they really couldn't eat that much. Besides, they'd already ordered snacks. In short, it was a typical Treecko Kimori "thank you, but no thank you".
"All right, so that's two slices of cake and a cupcake down," Lombre said once they were back in Cofagrigus' empty cake-shaped building. "That didn't really make a difference, did it."
"Yeah, but at least we're eliminating stuff slowly but sure-" Rem was starting to say as he entered when he stepped on a berry shooter, which rolled and threw him off-balance. As a result, the lemon meringue cake he was carrying toppled and fell into a bright yellow mess...
...all over Lombre's favorite combat boots.
»̶✽«̶
Lombre gaped at him for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what he'd just done.
However, the next second, she was grinning and picking up a chocolate cupcake.
And then she whooped, "FOOD FIGHT!" and promptly opened fire.
Rem screeched when he cupcake hit its target and became a muddy brown mess on his prized cotton hair.
"Not my hair!" he shouted. "I'll get you back for that!"
He grabbed a blueberry cupcake and threw it at Lombre, who ducked behind a table. The cupcake went splat on Cofagrigus' previously clean counter.
Lombre's head protruded from behind the table and she stuck her tongue out in an extremely annoying manner. "Ha-ha, missed me!"
"Oh yeah? There's more where that came from!" Rem snarled, grabbing a whole box of the blueberry cupcakes. He began to hurl them quickly so that the cupcakes rained on Lombre like bullets shot from a machine gun.
However, she wasn't out of ideas. She grabbed a wooden rolling pin from Cofagrigus' counter and used it to deflect some of Rem's cupcake missiles, but to Rem's delight, one managed to get past her defenses and made a mess of her lily pad sombrero.
He guwaffed in satisfaction. "And that, Señorita, was a clean headshot." He sneered. "I gotta admit, though, you have pretty nice reflexes for a gir-"
He stopped speaking due to the unfortunate incident of a whole apple pie hitting his face.
Grumbling and cursing, he tried to wipe the sticky remains off his face and glared at the snickering Lombre. "What the hell? That was a whole apple pie!"
"Sí, that was a whole apple pie which you should have been able to deflect had you not been yammering your mouth off," Lombre said lightly. She looked at her nails. "Or are you implying that my reflexes are much better than yours, hmm?"
"Of course not, you haven't seen anything yet," Rem grumbled. He grabbed a huge piece of marshmallow and rolled it in chocolate, vanilla, tiramisu, and lemon meringue cake, creating a messy bomb-like ball. Then he grabbed a cupcake and threw it at the Jolly Pokémon. As he knew she would, she dodged it, but as she did so, she fell right into the line of fire of his newly-invented bomb.
There was a most satisfactory SPLAT as his bomb made a direct hit. By the time the sticky cake had dripped off her face, she was wide-eyed with surprise and you could no longer see the skull patterns on her boots and bandanna.
Like I said earlier, Lombre wasn't your typical girl for she was grinning excitedly instead of freaking out. "¡Muy bien! That was an awesome strategy!" she exclaimed. "Caramba, that was exactly like something Treecko would have come up with."
Then a smirk replaced her previously excited expression. "Of course, it'll take a lot more than that to take me down," she challenged smugly.
Rem grinned, accepting it. "Good, because I was just getting started."
Hmm. Maybe this is Rem's and Lombre's version of a ceasefire? At least they're now having... fun? At least they're having fun together, right...?
Lopunny can't understand them. In fact, she's horrified. What's so fun about a food fight?!
... OK, that's enough of the food fight, thank you. We're about to go back to one of those pairings categorized under "possible bloodshed" for a minute.
Yep, we'd left off where Roselio had angered Krokorok until his patience had snapped. Even Lopunny isn't thrilled to see what Krokorok might do next.
"Take this, you stupid weed!" Krokorok growled, attacking Roselio with Foul Play. However, he simply somersaulted out of the way and smiled at him. "Was that all?"
Oops. Storm desperately wished she could make him be quiet, because the only thing Roselio seemed to be doing was anger Krokorok.
After a few more missed Foul Plays, Krokorok glared at the rest of the FANGS. "What are you idiots doing, just standing around?! Attack!"
At that, Krokorok's cronies seemed to snap out of their trance. Flanking Krokorok, they began to surround Storm and Roselio, forcing them to the middle of the field.
Seeing that they were helplessly surrounded, Roselio asked, "Bon, where do we go from here?"
Storm grumbled in annoyance. Now he's asking! "Next time, ask that before you anger the enemies."
She glanced around at the FANGS... and what she saw wasn't good. Krokorok was a Ground-type, dangerous to Electric-types like herself. Also, her Electric-type attacks, like her trusty Volt Tackle, wouldn't work on him. Magmar and Glalie were Fire- and Ice-types, respectively, and with moves of those types, they could certainly mow Roselio down double-fast. The only one who wasn't really a threat was Bellsprout, whom Roselio could (probably) defeat with some Poison Jabs.
Another oops.
Another oops indeed. Pairing 5: Roselio x Storm has just gone out of the frying pan and into the fire.
What can they do to get out of that fix now?
Meanwhile, in the Beach Cove, Lizzy the Flaaffy had just come to this terrifying bit of news: she was going to have to shoot the ball.
"Come on, Lizzy! You can do it! Just kick it as hard as you can!"
Suddenly Oshawott's voice broke into her thoughts. He was shouting at her, he was encouraging her, but if anything, it only made Lizzy stress out even more. "I can't!" she wailed.
"Sure you can," Oshawott shouted back. By this time, Timburr was leaving Oshawott and heading straight for her. If she didn't shoot soon, he would surely steal the ball from her. "I know you can do it, Lizzy! I believe in you. You should do the same, you know."
Lizzy blinked. You should do the same, you know. It was said in a light and nonchalant voice, but it was what she needed to hear. Yes. It was high time Lizzy the Flaaffy actually believed in herself, because, you know, others did.
Lizzy kicked the ball as hard as she could...
...which unfortunately wasn't that hard at all.
Instead of flying into the air like Oshawott's, Timburr's, and Golett's kicks, the ball only rolled on the ground weakly, since it was an undeniably weak kick on Lizzy's part.
She groaned. See! She couldn't do these things right at all. Now Roggenrola was sure to catch the ball.
Not!
Since he was expecting the ball to fly into the air like the boys' kicks had, Roggenrola was jumping and trying to protect the top half of the goal. He was leaving the bottom half unprotected.
And since Lizzy's kick was so weakly executed, the ball simply rolled slowly into the unprotected bottom half of the goal.
Lizzy's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe it. She, Lizzy, had just scored a goal in a game of beach soccer!
"WHOOOOO!" Oshawott was cheering and jumping. He ran right over to her, his face practically beaming. "See! I knew you could do it. I'm never wrong." His face expression promptly turned into the usual haughty one. "Great strategy, Lizzy! Instead of kicking really powerfully, you took them by surprise with an advertently weak one. Nice. Even I never thought of that before."
"I think I was just lucky," Lizzy said lamely. "And it wasn't because I had a strategy in mind, that was the most powerful kick I could manage, I'm afraid."
Oshawott paused, then grinned. "Whatever!" he laughed. "The only thing important now is that we're winning!"
Before anyone knew what was happening, Oshawott was mashing Lizzy into a hearty team hug. Most boys who played soccer did that to celebrate their goals, only it seemed as if Oshawott had forgotten that Lizzy wasn't a boy. At all.
When he finally released her, she was blushing like crazy and even more awkward than before.
ABOUT TIME! The first Meteor Mash-up hug! Maybe Lopunny's overreacting, but it's. The. First. Meteor. Mash-up. HUG.
OK, so Oshawott did it on impulse. OK, so he probably forgot that Lizzy was a girl. But it's. Still. The. First. Meteor. Mash-up. HUG.
Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy is coming along brilliantly, Lopunny is ecstatic to say!
Stay tuned on Wish Park FM, everyone~!