Episode 5: On the stage! (Part 1)

Lauren woke up the next morning to see Niko out of their bed and in the practice battlefield with his full team. Rubbing her eyes, she watched as glalie shot backwards across the window and use an ice beam on an undefined target. She sighed and got up to get dressed and ready for the day.

That day, she and Niko would compete in the Battle Hall against the Frontier Brain, whomever he or she was. She kept hoping that this wouldn't be the type of facility that forces her to use rental pokémon. She wanted to use her team and her own strategies, and she knew that Niko felt the same way.

After having breakfast with Brittany, JJ, and Niko, she went to the practice battlefield to work with her team for the rest of the morning. While she watched them practicing their moves, she wondered what more she could even teach them. She wanted infernape to at least attempt to learn blast burn, and for an hour or so in the morning she, Fay, and charizard worked with the fire monkey on the basics of the ultimate move. Meanwhile, the others mostly practiced their ordinary movesets, except for glaceon, who was trying to learn ice beam. However, the snow hat pokémon had difficulty focusing the attack, and at one point got some pointers from Niko's glalie, who had mastered the move over a year ago.

The whole time Niko watched, wondering which pokémon he would use during his match against the next Frontier Brain. They still didn't know much about the Battle Hall, despite their efforts to do some research on it. So essentially, they were all going in blind, and that irked Niko a little. He didn't like surprises, especially ones like this, where he preferred to be as prepared as possible. Nevertheless, he worked with his six pokémon as much as he could before the afternoon, when they would all head over to the Battle Hall for their match.

As they left the Pokémon Center several hours later, both Niko and Lauren felt a little more confident about their chances in the Battle Hall. Fortunately, it didn't take long to get to the Battle Hall. Unfortunately, there was a line to get in. The Survival Area was a small town. How were there so many people?

The group puzzled over this for some time before JJ and Fay went up to the front to get answers. At the front of the line, near the entrance, was a pair of security guards with two growlithes. As JJ and Fay approached them, they both held out a hand to stop them.

"Wait in line, boys." One of them said.

"Sorry, we're just wondering why there's a line. Two of our friends wish to challenge the Battle Hall."

"Have they been cleared?" The second one asked.

"Cleared?" JJ wondered, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Yes, cleared. All matches with Argenta must be cleared first. Battles with the Frontier Brain are public events, and so the challengers must apply to challenge her."

"Great. How may they do that?" Fay asked.

"Tell them to come over here, and we can show them to the application center." The first one replied. Fay and JJ nodded before turning around and walking back to Niko, Lauren, and Brittany, who had not moved even a step in the line. They both related their conversation with the guards to the other three.

"Why the hell do we have to apply for this?" Niko asked. "We've never had to apply for any gym battle before! Plus, none of them have been open to the public!"

"Well, no one said the Battle Frontier was like gyms." Lauren commented. "Plus, we have to register for Pokémon Leagues. This is just the same thing."

"I know, but still…" Niko said with a frown. "Alright, let's go Lauren." He said, leaving the line and motioning his girlfriend to follow him. Fay and JJ exchanged spots with the couple, who walked off towards the front of the line.

JJ chuckled a little. "Niko really isn't happy, is he?" Fay and Brittany both shook their heads in response. "He shouldn't be, though."

"Agreed. There are probably a lot of other things on his mind right now that he can't quite organize." Brittany added. "Hopefully Lauren sets him straight a little."

"It's not really a matter of 'setting him straight,' though." Fay said. "More like…she needs to encourage him to open up. If there is something going on, then no one can force him to talk about it. He needs to readily say it."

"That's what I was getting at." Brittany said in a soothing tone. "She can hopefully encourage him to. I think, out of all of us, she can."

"Really? Not you? Or JJ?" Fay said. "He's travelled with you two the longest. You both know him better than anyone, besides his family and maybe me."

"Well, I think that's why he wouldn't. Despite how close we all are, we haven't really made ourselves vulnerable to one another. I think Niko and Lauren are on the cusp of that, in a way that Niko and I aren't, or Niko and JJ aren't." Brittany said. It was clear to JJ and Fay that she had given this more thought than anyone, even Niko himself.

Meanwhile, Niko and Lauren approached the security guards about applying to challenge Argenta, the Frontier Brain, and the two readily directed the couple towards a backroom entrance, where another pair of security guards asked for clearance. Both Niko and Lauren showed their badges cases, as it was the only proof they had so far (since neither of them had earned any prints in the Battle Frontier). Luckily, the guards accepted this after looking up both of their names in some sort of database, ultimately discovering that they had both participated in the Lily of the Valley Conference, as well as their individual placements. Then the two allowed Niko and Lauren to continue on into another room down the hall, where they sat and waited for someone—anyone—to show up.

"Well, this has been easy so far." Niko commented as they sat waiting. "Wonder what else we'll have to do."

"They've done all of the background checks they needed to. What else would they need to see? We've shown them our badges cases, they looked up our participation in a Pokémon League—and probably discovered your involvement in four of them—what else is there?"

"No idea. But you never know. I mean, we didn't even know we had to apply for something like this. Usually we can just show up and battle."

"Yeah. It is a public event, though. That might change things. Hopefully we can get in for today."

"Hopefully so." Niko shook his head. "This is all so weird to me." Lauren nodded in agreement, leaning over to rest on his shoulders.

"Are-are you alright?" Lauren finally asked.

"Yes. What do you mean?"

"You've just been quiet recently, and I don't know why."

"Oh, yeah. I've just been thinking a lot. About this, about my pokémon, and rampardos."

"Rampardos is going to be fine. Your pokémon are fine. And you are a great trainer. What more is there?"

"I…I don't know." Niko said softly. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Please talk about it." Lauren said. Niko shook his head in response. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to. And I'm not changing my mind until I can better explain my thoughts!" Niko said, briefly raising his voice.

"That's all you had to say…" Lauren said, sitting back up and moving a little away from her boyfriend. She seemed offended by the remark, and didn't say anything else until a woman in glasses and business attire entered the room.

"Hello there. I've heard you both wish to challenge the Hall Matron Argenta?" She said in a soft, polite tone." Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Well, my name is Lillian. I'm her personal assistant, and after the guards showed me your records, I passed them both on to Argenta herself, and she is certainly interested in taking up your individual challenges. But we've got a busy schedule tonight. As you may or may not know, the Battle Hall is only open once every couple of weeks, and so we often get several challengers. Some are here simply for the glory of it, and others are here for the Hall Print. I assume you're here for the latter?"

Once again, Niko and Lauren both nodded. Lillian motioned them to stand up, and continued speaking as they walked out of the room and further down the hall.

"Argenta has a soft spot for challengers looking for the Hall Prints. She also appreciates trainers from other regions of the world. I noticed you're from Kanto, right Niko?"

"Yes, I am." Niko said in a diplomatic tone.

"Right. You've also participated in four Pokémon Leagues. Yes, she was most impressed by it, especially the consistency in your placements in each. It's not often trainers can make it to the quarterfinals in so many different regional leagues."

"I wouldn't say that's impressive at all." Niko argued back.

"Well, if the Hall Matron thinks it is, then I would consider that quite the compliment. Argenta gets a lot of challengers, but rarely do they beat her. The Battle Hall is…well, different from the other facilities."

"How so?" Lauren asked.

"You'll see." Lillian said, and opened another door at the end of the hall. Sitting in the room at a lit vanity, akin to the kind actors and other celebrities use, was a woman in her mid-40s with short purple hair and red-rimmed sunglasses sitting atop her head. Niko had no idea what kind of clothes she was wearing, other than that they were light burgundy shorts and top with a white undershirt. She wore purple leggings with long, heeled black boots that covered up most of the leggings. Lastly, she wore long hooped earrings. Upon Niko and Lauren entering the room, Argenta turned around in her chair to look upon her challengers, and stood up.

"Ah, you must be the challengers Lillian told me about. Hello, I am Argenta." She said in an unfamiliar tone. "I am the Hall Matron, and Frontier Brain for the Battle Hall. I'm told that you both want to battle me for the Hall Print?" Niko and Lauren nodded. "Excellent! I look forward to battling both of you. Are you both aware of how the Battle Hall operates?" Now the couple shook their heads. "Very well.

"The Battle Hall is a mixture of what you might see in the Battle Factory and the Battle Tower. What I mean by this is when you challenge me, or anyone else here in the Battle Hall, the pokémon we use is at random, and they are all rentals for us. But for you—the challenger—they are not. So, when you both challenge me, I will be using rental pokémon of my own, and they will be chosen at random from a pool of possible choices. I will not know which ones I have chosen, but I have raised and used all of them at one point or another, so I am not caught off guard. You may use whatever pokémon you please, and if you can beat me, then you earn the Hall Print. Does this make sense?"

"Yes." Niko said.

"Yep." Lauren said.

"Excellent. Now, I prefer double battles for those challenging me for the Hall Print, but I am flexible in conducting a single battle. Do you have any particular preference?"

"Double battles." Both of them said. Argenta smirked.

"Very well. I have some other challengers to get through, since you both applied at the last minute. You will both be my final opponents tonight. Lillian will give you the time to come back here. The guards will know to let you in. You may also use the backroom if you wish to change into something else, or as a place to rest and relax before the battles. I wish you the best of luck."

Lillian then showed them both out of the door and gave them further instructions for their battles. After, Niko and Lauren decided to head to the Battle Hall lobby and have an early dinner together before their match. There, they discussed their thoughts on Argenta and the battling style of the Battle Hall. Lauren was intrigued with Argenta, and found her very charming, but was unsure about the way the battles would be conducted. Niko had to agree with her on the charm of the Hall Matron, but wasn't fazed as much by the style.

"We didn't know what pokémon Palmer was using. And generally, we don't know the pokémon we're facing in the Pokémon League, so how is this any different?"

"Well, with Palmer I knew what to expect. Since I'll probably go first here, you won't get that opportunity to strategize while I battle her. You're going in just as blind as I am."

"But that's not a bad thing, Lauren!" Niko protested. "Again, we do this all the time anyways!"

"Why are you yelling…?" Lauren asked, sinking back a little in her chair across from Niko, who looked bemused.

"I wasn't trying to yell at you. Why would you think that?"

"Because you raised your voice. You never do that."

"Again, I wasn't trying to…" He sighed. "Whatever. Either way, I think we'll pull this off. We always do."

"Except against Palmer. We both lost."

"But we're going to beat him next him! I promise you that." Niko said with a smile.

"Right. You're right. We will beat him. Both of us. We just have to put in the time."

"And we've got the time here! It's not like in Sinnoh, where we had a deadline to meet if we wanted to compete in the Sinnoh League!" Niko said. Lauren nodded in agreement, this time with a smile. It was the first time Niko saw her smile all day, which he found odd. Usually she was more cheerful. He wanted to know why today was any different, but chose not to press the issue, out of fear that he might stress her out and, in turn, stress himself out.

For the next couple of hours, they watched battles from a monitor in the dining hall before walking back into the backroom that Argenta mentioned and Lillian showed them. They then waited in anticipation until the host—a man named Austin—announced two last-minute challengers, in reference to the couple.

"And now, please give a round of applause for our next challenger. She hails from Canalave City in Sinnoh, but was born and raised in the Johto region. She recently just placed in the Top 16 in the Lily of the Valley Conference, and is looking to challenge each of the Frontier Brains here on Battle Island. Please welcome Lauren!"

The short, blue-haired woman walked onto the stage in her fitting black jeans and blue and white-striped t-shirt. She briefly covered her eyes as she looked up at the massive, bright lights staring down from above, easily illuminating the stage and the rest of the stadium. Directly in front of her was Argenta, who wore a smirk on her face.

"I'm glad you're here, Lauren. I want to see the very best that your pokémon have got." She then nodded to Austin, who acted as referee for the match. He explained the rules of the match—double battle, and the winner is declared when both of their opponent's pokémon are defeated—and motioned for Argenta and Lauren to begin. "Metagross, lickylicky, I choose you!" She shouted, throwing out two pokéballs.

Lauren nodded at the choices before choosing her own. "Infernape, slowking, let's go!" She said, throwing two pokéballs out, one from each hand, and summoning the flame and royal pokémon. "Flame wheel on metagross, and water pulse on lickylicky!"

In the stands, Brittany, JJ, and Fay were just as surprised to see Lauren out there as anyone else. After the couple left to apply for a match, the three hadn't seen them the entire afternoon. After a while, they all correctly assumed that the two had been accepted, and sat and watched the matches. Fay in particular was excited to see some of the battles before Lauren's, as he hardly got to see them with the demands of his jobs. JJ, on the other hand, was getting impatient with all of it.

"Metagross, zen headbutt. Lickylicky, thunderpunch the water pulse!" Argenta commanded. Metagross' head began to glow bright blue as it slammed down on the flame wheel containing infernape, knocking the monkey backwards and rendering her attack ineffective. Lickylicky, on its part, exploded the water pulse in a shimmering explosion of electricity and water before charging towards slowking with another thunderpunch.

Lauren grit her teeth. It was going to be a tough match.