Beyond the Battlefield: Introductory Shots
by neptunesxdaughter
PITCH PERFECT AU
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Rating: T.
Genres: Romance, Friendship, Humour, Drama.
Cover: None at the moment.
Warnings: None in this chapter.
Type: Multi-chapter.
Inspiration: Another story that I'm working on, actually. And the Pitch Perfect movie.
Summary: All Misty wanted to do was to go to uni to complete a course to become a photographer, not compete on some battling team that is made up entirely of girls in order to compete nationally and against the boys' team from the same school. She wanted a normal experience, not this. Oh, Mew, help?
Pairings: [mainly] Pokeshipping, Ikarishipping, maybe Oldrivalshipping and others later on.
"Welcome, everybody to the Headquarters of the Girls' Battle Team." Leaf said with a large smile, throwing her hands out almost violently as the group of girls were instructed to remove the Pokémon beanies from their heads. Misty hesitantly pulled off the wool Pikachu that she had been givenoff her bright hair, and blinked a couple of times as her eyes got used to the lights. "We are in the stadium on the Articuno Wing of the university campus."
The (supposedly) retired trainer inwardly cursed. That was at least a twenty minute walk from her own dorm which was in the Mesprit Wing. Why was she doing this again? She was seriouslyconsidering just leaving the gigantic room right at that moment, but she stayed despite herself.
"So, I'm vice-captain of the team, and have been a member since last year. I'm only a sophomore, so, I'm probably the more approachable one out of me and Lucy." Leaf continued, gesturing towards the black-haired girl. She simply nodded her head in return, opening up her red eyes to gaze at all the members of the team.
Lucy finally stood up and began to take charge of the introduction. "Most of you probably don't know what this type of battling is about. Basically, we compete in competitions until the nationals, and then whoever wins the final competition of the season is declared the best. On each team there are usually six members but it is highly advised to have substitutes. No one will be getting special treatment by being put to battle in every competition; we will be rotating."
"Basically, three people will battle an opposing team per competition with one Pokémon per member. As an example, I could be versing someone from the Boys' Battle Team and then beat them, but that's only one round to us, before the second member of our team goes to battle the second member of their team." They all looked at Leaf as she took over from Lucy, an odd appearance of seriousness there that usually wasn't. Apparently, this thing was no joke.
Lucy smiled in approval. "Okay, there are only a few rules that are required for this. You need to be able to balance school work and your extra-curricular activities, and the battle team comes before anything else, after school, obviously. Training sessions will be regular, and please, I beg you, do not let boys distract you. Especially," she paused, glancing at her second-in-command. "them on the Boys' Battle Team."
"What if I told you that he's a hunter?" A girl with long, auburn coloured hair asked. She had a cheeky gleam in her eyes, and the sunglasses and the bandana on her head indicated that she was going through some sort of rebellious faze. She was gesturing to her legs with a smirk, but everybody could tell she was just kidding around.
The girl sitting next to her, wearing her thick hair in four piggy-tails and had an Axew poking out of it, gasped in mock horror, her mouth open in an amused grin. "You call it a dude?" she asked, to which the other girl nodded.
"Melody, Iris," Leaf giggled.
Lucy was trying to hold back her own smile unsuccessfully, trying to keep her cool demeanour. "Anyway, let's introduce ourselves to everybody. As you know, I'm Lucy, first in line to become the Pike Queen of the Battle Frontier, and I'm also a senior here." She explained, motioning for Leaf to go on.
"Leaf Green, yeah, don't laugh at my name. I was born in Pallet Town right here in Kanto and I began travelling to become a Pokémon Master before deciding to attend university to major in film after I was asked to direct this awesome movie in Unova."
Misty decided to go next. "Uh, Misty Waterflower, former Gym Leader of Cerulean City in Kanto. I retired from battling a few years ago, but apparently I'm back in the game, now."
They all watched as Misty bit her lip, shrugging it off.
The girl next to her lifted her head, and gave as shy smile. "My name's Serena Yvonne, and I'm from the Kalos region." She said.
"Your mum is Grace, the Rhyhorn racer, right?" Lucy asked with a curious expression, to which Serena nodded, eyes lowering.
"I'm a dragon trainer from the Village of Dragons, but I live in Blackthorne City in Unova. I travelled to Kanto to attend school here to further my training, so I'm going to be majoring in battling and hope to beat my grandfather one day." Iris went on, twirling a lock of her long hair around her finger as Axew popped out once again to agree happily.
"Axew!"
Melody stood up to have her turn, transferring all her weight onto her left hip as she cocked an eyebrow. "Melody, and I'm from Shamouti Island in the Orange Archipelago. I'm the current festival maiden since Carol got too old, 'cause she's ancient."
Misty grinned at the girl's attitude. She was definitely going to be the fun one out of all of them, if the eccentric one as well. A girl with long, magenta hair stood up and, striking a pose. "I'm Jessie! I've been on the team since freshman year, and I should have been captain this year—"
"—Yeah, until what happened at Nationals." Leaf cut in, causing Lucy to snicker.
"What happened last year?" asked Iris, raising her hand.
Misty whipped out her phone from the back pocket off her jeans, and gave it to Leaf who had motioned for to hand it over. Jessie's ears seemed to have steam coming out of them, and she was fuming, judging by her extremely red face and shaking from being angered. "Leaf!" she shrieked.
Her aforementioned teammate just poked her tongue out in return, before touching the YouTube application and typing in the necessary words into the search bar. She touched the very first video that came up in the results, and Misty's eyes widened as she remembered what the brunette had said to her while she had been cornered in the change rooms a few days ago.
"You were the one who caused the team to lose?" the redhead asked, already about to burst into hysterics. The video finally began to play after rendering, and they could see that someone had taped part of the battle between Jessie and another blonde girl, her Skunktank racing towards Jessie's Seviper. All the girls had gathered around Misty and Leaf, except Jessie who sat stubbornly in her seat.
"Alright, Seviper, use Poison Tail!"
Her opponent countered easily, a small smirk visible at the corner of her mouth. "Skuntank, counter with Double Team!" Misty squinted, trying to remember what her battling professor had said about the Skunk Pokémon.
"Wait, I thought that attack couldn't be learned by a Skuntank?" Leaf said, glancing at Lucy.
"They can learn it if they are taught via TM. Double Team is TM32, and is also a Normal Type." The captain responded. Jessie just sat off in the corner, a pout on her face and her arms folded once again in defence.
"Now use Poison Gas!"
They all watched on as the camera was moved to focus on Jessie, who had literally begun to turn green as the aroma of the attack was let loose. Her cheeks rounded and her eyes began to water. Soon enough, her hands that had been covering her mouth were removed instantly as she started to throw up into the audience.
"Oh, Arceus!"
"Ew!" Melody laughed, and everybody else caught on to the giggling bug.
"So, in other words," Lucy said after she finally managed to calm everyone down. "We don't want a repeat of last year. Be here at 9am tomorrow for training."
Iris groaned. "But it's a Saturday."
"More time the better."
Misty was surprised to discover that she had returned to the dorm before her roommate did. She had been readying herself for the horrible smell of nail polish or the sound of fan girl shrieking she was usually greeted with by Dawn.
But, the coordinator wasn't home, and neither were those giant pair of heels.
The redhead decided to go through a schedule inside her head so that she could get started on the workshop her class had been given a few days before. Opening up a new document on her laptop, she started to type a few quick dot points to help remember what she needed to do.
-Battle Team practice starts at 9 (bring all Pokémon) and should be done by 11.30am
-Head towards the shopping district on campus
-Buy a whole lot of things that can light up, like sparklers, glow sticks, etc.
Was that all she needed?
She sat staring at the screen, drumming her fingernails against the laptop, and almost jumped in front when Dawn stalked inside angrily, kicking her shoes against the cupboard and throwing her giant bag off in a huff. She was muttering to herself, eyebrows scrunched in concentration as she took out of her own laptop and jumped onto Facebook.
"Dawn, you okay?" Misty asked.
The normally-bubbly girl snapped her attention towards the redhead. "Why are boys so insufferable?" she ground out through clenched teeth. "I seriously had an awesome date with this guy called Barry, and then some asshole had to go ruin my day!" Misty didn't say anything, just allowed the girl to continue to vent. "He called me troublesome, even though he was the one who ran into me!"
"He seems like a jerk."
Dawn nodded vigorously. "He is! He has plum coloured hair, Misty. Maybe I should refer to him as plum-head the next time I see him?"
Her roommate just laughed. "So, tell me about your date?"
"Barry's a bit eccentric but nice enough, and lunch was amazing." She replied, sighing dreamily. "We went to a really cute café across campus called 'Moo Moo Miltank'," Misty winced at the name, knowing that this place was extremely girly and reeked ridiculously of perfume. "And we talked about a whole lot of things; like what we hope to happen in the future, past relationships and things like that. He's so cute, he accidentally put frosting on my nose from a cupcake and we had a mini frosting fight. He gave me his PokéGear number and I gave him mine so we're going to organise a day to go out again! Maybe he'll take me to dinner!" she squealed.
This guy had given himself a reputation, and so, had been labelled 'freak', all because of his loud and overdramatic behaviour. He often would 'fine' people $1,000,000 for the smallest things, such as dropping a pen or flipping a page of a book too loudly. She had seen him in her battle classes, and he was one of the guys who sat there, ready to pounce on the poor professor with stupid questions. "So, what about you, Misty? Have you see any cute guys on campus?"
"No, Dawn."
She watched as the blunette pouted. "Aw, why not?"
"'Cause I don't go scouting for boys like you do. Anyway, since you forced me into joining the Girls' Battle Team, you so owe me." The redhead said, waggling her finger at the girl opposite her.
They weren't informed of their first public practice until the third meeting. Misty was in the middle of battling Iris, her Dewgong preparing to use Ice Beam against Iris' Excadrill.
"Everybody, we have an announcement!"
They all stopped, and Misty quickly slipped a Super Potion to her Pokémon as everybody gathered around to where Lucy was standing. Leaf looked confused, so this must have been a last minute decision. "We have been booked a public performance down at the grounds. It's not going to be an official match, more on the sides of display. I thought that since we're doing fairly well, I agreed on behalf of everyone. We have to be there soon."
The vice-captain stopped her. "Lucy, are you sure about this?"
The other girl nodded, a confident smile gracing her lips. "Yep!"
Misty could see the hesitation in the older girl's eyes. The two had become close friends over the course of the month that the Girls' Battle Team had been together, and it wasn't hard to tell that Leaf thought they weren't ready at all. On the other hand, Jessie looked more than happy to participate in the display that Lucy had set up.
"I can't wait!" she proclaimed, turning into a poorly performed pirouette, retrieving a pair of orange, round-rimmed glasses with flared edges to perch on her nose. "This is going to be so exciting! My Arbok and my Yanmega are all ready to go!"
Iris noticed another Pokéball at Jessie's waist, immediately pointing that out. "What about your Wobbuffet?" she asked, smirk beginning to form on everyone's faces. Jessie's Wobbuffett was a lot worse than Misty's Psyduck when it came to popping out of its Pokéball – it had a habit of coming out at the most awkward moments.
The magenta haired girl seemed as though she was ready to burst once again from anger. She really couldn't handle any sort of teasing, especially from her rival, Cassidy, who was the co-ed battle team at Indigo University. Lucy sent Iris another warning expression, and the Unovian-born girl just smirked, but nonetheless, backed off. Misty bit her inner lip to keep from laughing also.
Leaf led her gaze towards the phone that she held in her hands after it vibrated, and Misty nudged her when a silly smile began to replace the grim line her lips had been previously. The girl beside her showed her the text, and the redhead couldn't help but let out a strained chortle from the back of her throat.
From: Gary
Heard you guys are doing a battle display later this week – that's what Brock told us. Anyway, Ashy-boy has a weird attraction to your hot friend, but he's too scared to talk to her. So, meet up with us at the display?
By the way, looking forward to seeing you, later. ;)
The sound that Misty released caused the brunette to jump in surprise, but winked at her when Misty began to blush profusely at the mention of Ash. "I'm telling Dawn about this later." Leaf whispered. Misty punched her lightly in the arm in response, groaning at the same time.
"So, when is the battle display?" Melody inquired, bouncing her toes as she sat down. "You haven't told us yet."
"Oh, right, it's supposed to be in four days. I'm sure we'll be ready by then!"
Dawn was ridiculously excited when she found out about Ash's supposed 'crush' on Misty. The two had barely spoken at all, but apparently, they would be today because the entirety of the Boys' Battle Team was going to be there to watch their performance, by the insistence of Brock who had a strange and obsessive infatuation with Lucy (who would blush whenever he dramatically professed his love for her on many public occasions).
She had literally shrieked upon hearing the rumour, with people down the hall yelling at her to shut up, but that didn't stop her from prodding Misty with questions or squealing in delight.
"So, are you going to get a boyfriend already so that we can go on double dates?" she had asked, subtly motioning to Ash who had been walking past with Brock.
"I'm around you almost all the time, what do I need a boyfriend for?"
Of course, this hadn't been the response her roommate had been hoping for. She was convinced that Misty would have said 'soon' at least. It was weird, because it was like the blunette wanted to get away from her blonde boyfriend. Barry was awesome, don't get her wrong, but sometimes his antics really annoyed her. He'd fine people $1,000,000 for just looking at her while they were at the movies or sitting together at lunch. It was stupid. Other than that, he was cute.
But, she couldn't help but notice that her attention was being drawn to the really mean guy who had insulted her. Paul, as she had learned his name to be, completely dismissed her though whenever they strolled past each other in between classes. His hair looked so soft, and she had to resist the urge to run her hands through it whenever she saw him. He was weird and emotionless, but Dawn was into the whole, mystery bad boy with an injured soul since she watched 10 Things I Hate About You as a child.
It wasn't long before the day for the battle display had arrived. When Misty woke up, she took a quick shower before brushing out her hair and throwing on a pair of shorts, her red and yellow high tops and a long black ribbon around her head to sit underneath her high ponytail, the two long pieces that hadn't been knotted left dangling. Dawn was already up as she had a date with Barry, so she had left before Misty had even awakened herself, and then the two of them would meet up with the Misty and the others later on.
She grabbed her leather pouch, and circled it around her right thigh, hearing the click of the connection between two ends to indicate that it was secured around her leg, and placed three of her Pokéballs inside the pouch, along with two Hyper Potions and a few berries.
When she got to the Battle Complex where everybody was waiting, her eyes almost popped out of their sockets at the view that they were met with.
Lucy and Jessie were standing beside each other, already donning outfits that were exactly the same before Jessie shoved one into Misty's hands and directed her towards the bathroom. The redhead obeyed with a roll of her eyes.
The change rooms were crowded enough, but with all six of the girls cramped into one corner, it was hard to even find a spot for herself to change into this hideous get up. Serena was still wearing her black collared shirt and her red, high-waisted skirt but had removed her high tops, her socks and her hat. The red mini-jacket that Misty had on was zipped up only slightly so that her sports bra was seen stayed on her own body as well.
"We're not seriously wearing that, are we?" she asked, gesturing to Leaf who was trying to adjust the costume in the mirror. It consisted of a black crop top and then a long sleeve white top over it with a slight snip in the centre along with a bright pink 'R', grey gloves that went up to the elbows, a white mini skirt that dipped downwards slightly so that it revealed her belly button but still sat above her hips and a pair of thigh length boots to match the gloves. They also had a slight heel that clacked against the ground whenever Leaf walked about.
Serena had a disgusted expression on her face. There was no doubt that she was the fashion guru of them all, being from the Kalos region. The honey blonde haired girl was always giving the other girls tips on how to improve themselves, and though she seemed really shy at first, she really held great insight.
"Who designed these? They're so ugly."
"Jessie did, and Lucy said to just go with it to humour Jessie for a little while. She is such a spoilt brat." Iris remarked, pulling on her left boot with a bit of a struggle. Melody was trying to fix her make-up in her small compact mirror.
"Even more than I am."
All the girls laughed at this.
Misty unzipped her jacket, but left it on her shoulders. "I really don't want to wear this, but only for today." The redhead said, placing a hand on Serena's shoulder. "One day can't hurt, right?"
A/N: Hey, guys! I'm so sorry about the delay in updates, this chapter was originally finished during November, but then my computer crashed and it only autosaved half the document, so I had to re-write the rest. I was pretty annoyed, because the original of this chapter was over 4,000 while this one is only around 3,000. Oh, well.
The battle display will be at the start of the next chapter don't worry. :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and please don't hesitate to leave a review.
Word Count: 3,329