The little girl standing impossibly small at the end of the pitch squared up and ripped one of her Poké Balls from her belt, holding it straight in front of her body. The crowd cheered; the challenge was now official.
"Wow, Saffron City, I cannot believe my eyes! This brave young warrior has made it official! Introducing the youngest Pokémon Trainer to ever throw her hat into this hallowed ring! Everybody, give it up, for Pallet Town's very own Leaf Konoha!/
Like a sonic boom, the very air of the stadium seemed to burst with thunderous applause as a dozen small drones danced around young Leaf, her sunburnt skin displayed on every television monitor in stunning resolution. Small beads of sweat formed in the craters of her pores, scrubbed free of its usual debris for the occasion, as she baked under the spotlights.
The emcee fought the crowd for control, his voice echoing in Looker's chest like a subwoofer.
"And representing the gleaming jewel of Kanto! Saffron City's very own! The beautiful, the mysterious, the viciously dangerous - Sabrina!"
The cacophonous exultations of the crowd threatened to shake the convention center off its foundation. The spotlights on Leaf swiftly rotated to highlight the other end of the pitch as the stadium lights dimmed. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. And then, a blink - as if from nowhere, a musclebound woman in a tight-fitting pinstriped suit appeared. Glowing red eyes appeared beneath the dark lenses of her Black Glasses as she floated several feet above the clay floor.
Looker sipped water from a paper cup as the woman descended to the ground, seemingly balancing her full weight on the very tip of her toes.
" 500 on Sabrina, any takers?" Looker mumbled to Bad Cop, who turned his head and barked.
The crowd's excitement hung in the air like a particularly rancorous bout of flatulence. Looker hated these places. Violence for violence's sake had always rubbed him the wrong way, and especially here - especially when it involved kids.
"Before we begin," the emcee continued, "Leaf Kohona! What do you want to say to the world?"
A Magnemite waving a microphone floated over to Leaf, while another adjusted its telescopic eyeball camera to focus on her face. The look of determination in her eyes was famous, though not from her.
"My name is Leaf Kohona!" came the girl's fiery voice. "And I wouldn't be standing here today - without my grandmother, the Madama Banshee!"
The monitors around the stadium cut to a prerecorded commercial that everyone present had seen a million times before. Four silhouettes stood shadowed against the topography of western Kanto and the iconic Indigo Plateau; in a few seconds, the silhouettes vanished but one. And suddenly, the remaining silhouette morphed into a dark, amorphous cloud; the sounds of screams and gnashing teeth filled the stadium as cries of Banshee! Banshee! Banshee! echoed.
The dark cloud morphed into a very modern kitchen packed to the brim with kitschy, old-timey knicknacks, and the soft visage of an old woman with Leaf's piercing eyes appeared.
"That's right, ladies and gentleman! Not only is Leaf our youngest challenger in history, but she also happens to be - the granddaughter of the Madama Banshee!"
The sweet, demure old woman on the televisions closed her steely eyes and smiled, her yellowed teeth dotted with old metal fillings and her gums stained black with age.
"I believe in you, my young poppet!" the video recording sounded. "As always - you are the real hero!"
Looker's distaste for the barbarism of Pokémon battles suddenly gave way to a brutal curiosity.
"Well, well, well - Agatha's granddaughter, is she," Looker said to Bad Cop. "This just got a whole lot more interesting."