~ Meteor Mashed! ~
When Braixen and Breloom returned into the dojo for the announcement, Hariyama sneered in their direction. Unlike Braixen and Breloom, he didn't look tired at all. Even worse, he looked quite confident. So did his equally-tough-looking teammate, a Hitmonchan.
"How was it?" Hariyama smirked.
Braixen didn't say anything but stuck her nose in the air.
Finally, Axew went up onto a small platform with a microphone. "Hello everyone, and thank you for participating in the Power Bash today!" he said. "I'm sure everyone did their best out there, but here's what you've been waiting for: the winner announcement!"
"Cross your fingers," Braixen mumbled. "I'll never hear the end of it if Hariyama wins."
"I don't have any fingers," Breloom reminded her.
Axew went on, "In third place, we have Meditite and Mienfoo, whose final score is 20.000 points!"
There were cheering, although most of the bigger Pokémon looked surprised and sullen that they'd been beaten by the two small Fighting-types.
"In second place we have... Hariyama and Hitmonchan! Their final score is 28.000! Wow! That's quite impressive!"
Hariyama only nodded. However, Braixen noticed that he didn't look too thrilled. Maybe getting into second place wasn't satisfactory enough for the reigning champion.
"Finally, we've come to the first place..." Axew looked down at the paper he was holding. "Oooh, this is even more impressive! Our first place winners managed to score 33.000 points! What's surprising is that these two are Power Bash first-timers! Let's give it up for Braixen and Breloom!"
The first time she heard it, Braixen wouldn't believe her ears. However, the full weight of Axew's announcement sank in after Breloom suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shook her excitedly. "Ya hear that?! We won first place! WHOO-YEAH!"
"We won," Braixen gasped naively. "Dear Arceus, I can't believe we actually won."
...That was when she thought she felt her fur at the back of her neck stand up, as if someone was staring at her back. She turned and caught Hariyama staring daggers at them with an envious look on his face. That was what compelled her to get her cool act back up.
"Uh, I meant, it's only natural that we won, isn't it, Breloom." She stuck up her nose and twirled her stick. "Come on, let's go get the prize we so rightfully deserve."
Then the Fire-type, the only girl in the dojo, strutted over to Axew's platform as if she owned the place, the stick still tracing arcs of fire in the air as Breloom followed close behind.
"Girls," he muttered with a smile.
Oh, yaaaay! Lopunny feels like rushing into Haxorus' dojo with her pom-poms and breaking into a cheerleading routine, then mashing Breloom and Braixen together. Pairing 1: Breloom x Braixen actually beat reigning champion Hariyama!
Isn't it amazing what a little teamwork can do?
...
After quite a while of playing, there was a point when both Lizzy's and Oshawott's decks were really thin and the middle pile was really thick. None of them could afford to "mess up their reflexes" now because if they did, they were going to have to be collecting a lot of cards which would definitely put them at a considerable distance from the already-within-reach victory.
"Queen," Oshawott said, placing the next card face up on the pile. It was a queen of spades.
Slap! Slap!
Lizzy's hand slapped the pile first. Only a few seconds slack, Oshawott's hand landed on top of the Flaaffy's.
"No!" Oshawott groaned in defeat.
"Ha!" Lizzy was gleeful. "I w-win! All these c-cards are for you!"
"No!" Oshawott said again. "Let's start over. I wasn't ready."
"No way," Lizzy giggled. "And that was the whole point, Oshawott. If you don't get ready, you lose."
Oshawott grumbled under his breath, but then gave in. "Ugh, fine. Maybe it was my fault that I wasn't ready. But it could also have been because you've had much more practice at this than I have, since your sister was the one who invented the game and whatnot."
"Ha-ha, very funny." Lizzy rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's continue. I'm just a stone's throw away from victory since you've just collected a whole fresh pile of new cards."
"All right, fine, but I'm warning you that I may still have a shot at this," Oshawott said proudly. "You start from two."
"Uh-uh." Lizzy wavered.
A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.
"What are you waiting for?" Oshawott rolled his eyes. "Do you want to continue playing or not?"
"W-well, I'm waiting for you to remove your hand from m-mine, that's what."
Lizzy's awkward demeanor was back, but this time she had a good reason to be that way. The sea otter hadn't taken his hand away since it had landed on top of hers when they'd hurriedly slapped the pile.
"Oh, oops." Oshawott tried to act coolly, but if you were there, you would have been able to see that it wasn't really working. "Oops, um, sorry. I was kinda... distracted, that's all."
He cleared his throat and took his hand away. Lizzy thought her hand was tingling where Oshawott had touched it...
But of course she may be imagining things.
"Umm, OK, I'll start again," she chose to say, accompanied by a nervous laugh.
"Two."
Lopunny sneers. Aww, Oshawott! Were you really just "distracted" or did you do that on purpose, hmm~?
Pairing 3: Oshawott x Lizzy is just. So. ADORABLE! Squeeeeeeee~!
Ahem. Let's move on to another pairing.
After a few moments, Nile finally returned with a whole handful of berries. Darwin and Cleffy were still talking about crushes and whatnot, and they immediately went quiet as Nile walked over.
"I've got the berries," he announced. He smiled at Cleffy. "Glad to see that you're up, Cleffy. You went out cold really suddenly back there." Turning to the Roserade, he said, "And thank you for watching over her, Darwin."
"Oui oui, don't mention it," Darwin said, standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have someone to look for."
Nile didn't know, but of course Cleffy knew exactly who that someone was.
"Good luck, Darwin," Cleffy called after her.
The Roserade had begun to walk away, but she turned back to raise her red rose and wave at Cleffy and Nile.
"Good luck to you too, Cleffy Clefairy," she called back. Although she was far away, Cleffy saw that she was wearing a smirk.
»̶✽«̶
Although Cleffy insisted that she was fine, Nile still had her eat some of the Oran berries he came back with. As she ate, her face was red and she could only look down at the ground. It was silent, which was probably none short of miraculous since the Swoobat seemed to have moved to another part of the cave.
Finally, Cleffy was the one who broke that silence.
"I'm s-sorry," she whispered, fingering the leftover berry leaves.
Nile finally snapped to attention. "Huh? What for?"
"For being such a b-burden," she went on. "I'm sorry, I claim to be a rescue team Pokémon when in truth I c-can't even d-defend myself that well. Now I've gone and t-troubled you to go and get me these berries when we could be doing something less... useless and... ugh, I'm sorry f-for ruining your Meteor Mash-up experience and all...!"
"Ruining my Meteor Mash-up experience...?" Nile's eyes were wide with surprise. "No, you're not doing anything of the sort, Cleffy! You don't have anything to worry about. It's OK to feel nervous," he said. "I have to admit that I felt nervous when I first joined this thing."
"Oh?" Cleffy looked up. "But you d-don't act nervous at all!"
"Well, yeah." Nile smiled. "Do you often hear people say 'devil-may-care'?"
"Uhh, yeah. I've heard some people say it," Cleffy said thoughtfully. "Wh-what's that got to do with anything?"
"That's how I act when I meet new people," he replied. "Devil may care, brush problems away like pesky flies. I try not to worry about what other people think of me. You know, this may sound like the most mainstream phrase ever, but just be yourself... or something."
He sat down next to her. "You see, you act more naturally when you're being yourself, when you stop worrying about what kind of person other people want you to be. When they don't like you, that's their problem, not yours. That's because the only one good at being you is, well... you, and no one should change you into someone you really aren't. Because, Cleffy-"
He turned to her. "There really isn't anything wrong about you, you know. There really isn't anything you have to change about yourself. What you probably should do is feel a bit more... confident... about yourself. Oops. I didn't mean to school you or say anything cliché or anything, and maybe my opinion is a bit biased because I actually like shy girls..."
The next second, he seemed to realize what he'd just said and his face turned an interesting shade of red. However, this time Cleffy had taken over the role of Roselio – miraculously totally oblivious to Nile's current predicament.
At that, Cleffy's mind went back to before she met Nile. She had been worrying about what would happen if Nile turned out to not like her. She had been a nervous wreck. Even after Lombre had told her to "hold on loosely but don't let go", she still couldn't stop worrying. Even after seeing that Nile was a carefree Pokémon, not even half as demanding as she thought he would be.
Yes, Cleffy Clefairy ought to think higher of herself for once. It wasn't her job to tailor herself specifically to suit other people's needs, so that they would like and accept her. Her job was simply to be the best version of herself. Whether people liked her or not in the end was another matter altogether, and it was not her problem to stress about.
She could hear Lombre saying, hold on loosely, but don't let go.
This time, Nile chimed in, devil may care, Cleffy. If they don't like you, that's their problem. No one's better at being you than you. Brush them away like pesky flies.
Nile.
He was a Fighting-type, yet he was not all brawn and no brain. He was obviously a deep thinker, and that somehow motivated Cleffy to try her best.
Cleffy stood up. "U-uh, I think I'm OK to continue walking now."
"OK." Nile stood up also. He looked around. "Want to walk behind me? We haven't seen any Swoobat again, but they may be back." He clenched his fists, Fighting-type style.
Unconsciously, Cleffy clenched her own fists also.
"No, thank you, I'm sure I'll be a-all right," she said. "Wh-when any Swoobat comes, I'll Mega Punch them for sure."
Nile laughed, but he was actually pretty surprised at Cleffy's sudden change in attitude. "Well... maybe not Mega Punch, either; that would have been too... sadistic?"
Cleffy laughed pleasantly, then looked deep in thought. "OK, maybe not Mega Punch," she agreed. "M-maybe a simple Swift would do just f-fine."
The Meteor Mash-up isn't just about meeting new people with a lot of different points of view.
In fact, perhaps the most important part of it is learning something new about yourself.
Right?
...
The blue character with the cotton wings who had suddenly and out-of-the-blue come to Tepig's bench introduced herself as Altaria Cottonspores.
"Oh," Tepig said, shaking her wing. It felt like soft cotton candy. "Nice to meet you, Altaria."
Another silence.
"I'm Darwin's best friend but... I unfortunately don't know where she is, either," Altaria said quietly, out of the blue. She sounded almost apologetic.
"Huh, that's what we both have in common, then," Tepig said. "She did leave without giving me any hint as to where she's going."
"...I'm sorry." This time Altaria expressed her pity forwardly. "Someone told me what happened and that things aren't really going so well between you and Darwin. That's how she is, I'm afraid; she can be really stubborn whenever she has an idea in her head. She's like a charging Tauros. You can't stop her."
"I understand, and I'm OK," Tepig said with a small smile. "I can understand why she did that. I think having loved ones close to us is really important, almost as important as honesty. I think she was only doing the right thing. When you have someone you hold dear, you'd want them to be close to you."
Altaria smiled at him. "Wow, Tepig, you're really understanding, and that's really something," she said, impressed. "Sometimes her decisions and behavior even piss me off."
Tepig laughed, brushing the compliment away. "Oh, it's nothing," he said.
"So, you're just going to sit here and wait for her?"
"Well, yeah," Tepig sighed helplessly. "I don't think I can do anything else. If I go somewhere else, Darwin won't find me when she finally comes back."
"...And you're still hoping that she'd return."
"Not really." Tepig shrugged. "In fact, I'm kind of the opposite. I hope she gets to meet this Hypno guy. Seems like she's pretty crazy about him. Still, it's a good idea to be on the safe side and just stay here."
"Tepig, you're too kind-hearted!"
"No, I'm not," Tepig said. "Besides, waiting here wouldn't be as boring, since I've at least got someone I can chat with!" He smiled at her. "Thank you for giving me some company, Altaria. I really appreciate it."
"Of course!" Altaria exclaimed. "Please, it's nothing. It's my pleasure to stay with you, since you're one of those few Pokémon who actually understand the important things. You're different from most Pokémon. I like that."
Tepig smiled at her.
And this time, probably since the start of the Meteor Mash-up, the smile was for real.
Lopunny the Spy feels huge satisfaction when she finally sees Tepig and Altaria doing things Froslass and Gremlin have been doing: chatting and cracking a few jokes.
Finally. Tepig Pokabu gets the real taste of the Meteor Mash-up. It's about time, too. Lopunny agrees with Froslass that he really didn't deserve to be ditched. It's a good thing she bumped into Darwin's friend Altaria!
And as for Altaria herself...
You did a great job, girl! Lopunny thought, and she can't help but smile.
...
It's almost dusk, so all pairings had better get their bearings! What will happen as the sun goes down? Will Darwin get a chance to be with Hypno? What about Cleffy and Roselio? What about the other pairings, scattered across Wish Park and PokéPark?
Stay tuned on Wish Park FM~!