By the day of the Contest Ashley had changed her full-length skirt for a shorter, black, one and black close-fit knee-high boots. For the contest though, she had splurged a bit to make the best of the performance that she had honed with her sister over the past two days, even taking the time to master walking in three inch stiletto's. She walked into the registration hall for the contest and said, "Hi, I'd like to enter this contest."
The woman at the table said, "Pass please?" in a nasal voice that would quickly grow to annoy anyone given more than five minutes with the woman.
Ashley said, "I'm afraid that this will be my first contest in the Johto Region, so I'll need a pass made up for me."
"Name?"
"Ashley Ketchum."
"Ketchum? Where have I heard that name before?"
"My cousin used some pretty unbelievable strategies in the Johto League a few years back."
"Ah, that kid with the Charizard, right?"
"That'd be the one."
"Okay, so…here you are," the woman said, completely ignoring Whitney's presence due to the regularity with which she went through the town, helping people out with whatever might be ailing them at the time. "Now you'll need to slide it through the reader on the table there," pointing to two black…block-like things set up close together on the desk. Once Ashley had done so, the reader doing its job, reading the magnetic strip on the back of the card, she was registered for the contest. "You, go through the door on the right, it leads to the contestant's hall. There are change rooms if you need them on the way…"
"Thank you," Ashley said, waiting around to bid her friend, and sister, farewell.
"…and you, Whitney, can go through the door on the left. It leads to the grandstand. It's first come first serve so, you'll have to find your own seat."
Whitney said, "Sure thing Lucrecia," stepping aside for her friend's sister and her friend.
Once the two elder teens stepped out of the way, Amelia and Mikki stepped forward and Mikki slid her Contest Pass through the reader, having had to do the same the last two Johto Contests that she had entered, quickly registering so as she could avoid having to listen to the woman's voice. When that was done she turned to her friend and said, "Well, I'll see you when this is over Amelia."
"Yeah, sure thing," Amelia said, turning to her elder sibling to say, "Kick ass Ashley," before hearing Whitney wish her sister good luck, though not in quite so vivid terms.
The two viewers then turned to leave for their seats as Ashley looked at Mikki and said, "Well, that's us then," and walked towards the door to the participant's waiting room.
Mikki called out, "Hey! Wait up!" and rushed after her friend's elder sister.
As Mikki chased after Ashley down the hallway she saw her enter one of the changing rooms, finally figuring out what she was carrying her satchel for. She thought, 'She's changing? I wonder why?' With that in mind, she walked past the change rooms and entered the waiting room.
When Ashley entered the waiting room the entire room stopped still, staring at the beauty that had just entered the room. She was wearing a white, full-length, open-backed, formal dress with a v-shaped neckline that had a pattern of blue and red sequin leaves of various shades reaching from her left shoulder to her waist and continuing down to stop somewhere near her knees, breaking the sea of white sequins. The dress had a slit up the right side so that she could walk normally, but had the added effect of revealing the three-inch gold-sequin stiletto's that she was wearing. Unlike normal, she had her hair free flowing in a split-style. It was wavy over her right shoulder while it stayed flat down the back.
Most of the men in the room had to face a wall, or otherwise place something on their laps to hide their reaction to the sight, while most of the women had a wave of deep-seeded hatred flow through them. Mikki though, groaned, "Oh no!" covering her eyes with her right hand as she thought, 'I knew it! Her entering this can only end badly for everyone else here…and we haven't even started the Performance Round yet!'
A red haired Coordinator, that was wearing overly large sunglasses, thought to herself, 'Who does she think she is, turning up here in a dress like that?!'
Another beauty, the same age as Ashley, but with brown hair was wearing a green and blue full length, summer dress was sitting on a seat next to the wall. She thought, 'Why does she look familiar? Well, I'll probably be able to recognise her performance style if I've come across her before.'
Just then a voice came over the PA system and said, "Will Leaf please come out to the field."
The girl in the blue and green dress stood up and left the room, saying, "Wish me luck Marina?"
Marina, a blue haired coordinator wearing a white panel skirt with a pink shirt said, "Hah, you don't need luck Leaf. If anyone does, it'll be that girl that just entered the room."
Leaf quietly said, "I doubt it," unsure why she was so certain of it.
Marina started to ask, "What do you…" but she didn't get to finish her question as her friend left.
When Leaf left the hallway waving to the crowd, she was greeted by many cheers and even a few jeers by fans of other contestant's, but the fifty million pokédollar smile never left her face.
When Leaf appeared on the screen in the waiting room, Ashley thought, 'Leaf? Huh, well what do ya know? So she made it to the contest circuit after all. In that case, show me what you've got,' a serious expression falling onto her face, which scared the living daylights out of Mikki.
When she got to the centre of the stage she said, "Let's give 'em a show, Starmie!" and threw her pokéball up in the air where it burst into water, courtesy of the ball seal that she had stuck on it, which Starmie spun out from at top speed. Starmie then spun around in a massive circle, coming to rest in front of Leaf, but what impressed the crowd even more than Starmie's stopping speed, was it's colour. Instead of the normal purple that they had been expecting, this one was a dark blue with a red shell keeping attached the brighter blue gem that indicated its mood.
Leaf said, "Alright Starmie, use Rapid Spin!" prompting Starmie to start spinning around in ever widening circles, around Leaf. When the circles were just about to touch the judge's table, she said, "Alright Starmie, up!" Starmie's circles raised to be above the heads of Leaf and the judges' heads by about a metre after just skipping over their heads on the first time round after Leaf had told it to go further upwards, causing the judges' hair to whip sideways. It slightly embarrassed the city's Mayor as it caused his toupee to fly off, which caused a lot of laughter. Leaf however, looking at the audience, didn't see it, so, when Starmie was high enough, she said, "Okay, Now use Water Pulse!" Starmie shot numerous Water Pulse's up in the air, all of which came to a stop on the same level, but didn't fall. When they were in place Starmie descended back to stand in front of Leaf. To the audience's, now silent, confusion, the orbs of water seemed to start dancing about to some nonexistent rhythm. After about twenty seconds of this one audience member started to laugh. Soon enough the arena was filled with raucous laughter.
As the audience's laughter increased, Leaf thought, 'If you think this' good, then you've seen nothing yet,' and smirked as she said, "Alright, Starmie, bring 'em to a halt." All of a sudden the spheres of water stopped moving about and just hovered there, causing the entire audience to look down at Leaf and Starmie.
In the waiting room Mikki thought, 'That's amazing! It's like she has complete control over the audience,' an awestruck look on her face.
Seeing the look on her sisters' friend's face, Ashley thought, 'Take a good look Mikki. Leaf's been doing this a long time and if you want to stand any chance at the Grand Festival, you'll need to be capable of at least this much.'
When the audience looked at the arena floor, some of those in the closer seats thought that they saw a glow in Starmie's gem, though they couldn't be sure. Leaf said, "Now, for the finale!" her voice ringing throughout the arena. "Starmie, destroy 'em!" at Leaf's command Starmie flew up to be in about the centre of the orbs of water, which seemed to somehow start to expand and contract before they burst apart where they were, but none in the audience got wet due to the spray being too fine.
Leaf said, "Cosmic Power," too low for any other than her Starmie, with its psychic powers, to be able to hear. Starmie's gem started glowing before the glow expanded to cover Starmie's whole body, emitting a calming blue light, which was refracted and enhanced by the drops of water from the Water Pulse's that Starmie had destroyed, casting the entire arena in a blue glow. Not one audience member wanted to break the silence that fell over the stadium.
The host, Cerian Meridian, said, "And will you give it up for Leaf!" the audience burst into applause with many cheers from all members of the audience, even those that had been jeering at her when she entered the arena. When that died down Cerian said, "And with that, what do the judges have to say?"
The Mayor said, "The performance was truly mesmerising and the skill with which you manipulated the audience's attention was astounding, if a little embarrassing. If you'd like I could always do with a trainee."
Leaf said, "Uh…no thanks. I'm quite happy where I am now, thanks very much."
"Well, the offer will always be open."
Leaf said, "Even so…" before being cut off by Cerian announcing that Mr. Contesta would be speaking next.
Mr. Contesta said, "A remarkable performance executed with illuminating grace, belying the fact that you've been at this only this past year and a half."
Cerian said, "And now on to the Goldenrod City Nurse Joy!"
Nurse Joy said, "You displayed Starmie's abilities perfectly, allowing us to see a perfect melding of the abilities of the Psychic and Water Types."
"Now, on to the judging!" the LED display on the front of the benches of Nurse Joy, the Mayor and Mr. Contesta displayed a 10, a 10 and a 9.5 respectively.
With the scoring done, Leaf curtseyed to the judges and left the arena. As Leaf left, Cerian said, "Now, next up is…"