Since I can't reply to guest review directly, I'll quickly do it here: to Noelle, I do have plans for what you mentioned in your chap 23 review, but it won't be until Fuchsia at the earliest, and maybe even a bit later. I'm still figuring out a good timing for it.
Chapter Thirty-Two: Not Very Appealing
The Exposition was drawing near, so Serena was hard at work on her Location Round. After winning her battle against Terri at the Fighting Dojo, Pancham had been working hard on both his Aerial Ace and his new Drain Punch, but he wasn't alone. While Sylveon, like Misdreavus, preferred keeping her current moves, Delphox felt it was time to try learning something new, and she'd been working on learning Psyshock, forgoing Scratch, which she barely ever really used to begin with. With that, Serena had come up with a solid plan for the Location Round, and as usual she couldn't wait to perform the routine for real once the Exposition started.
Additionally, she and Ash had been practicing hard for the Showoff Rounds as well. Ash had decided to temporarily swap out Hawlucha for Noctowl for his battle with Sabrina, where he'd also use Krookodile and Noivern, and he'd been getting Noctowl back up to speed by having him compete against Serena in the Showoff practice as well. Bayleef was annoyed he didn't pick her for the Gym battle, but she was at least happy she got to stay in the team for a bit longer.
All in all, the preparations went fairly smoothly, and given the size of Saffron City, it wasn't even all that difficult to find suitable outfits for the performance. Misdreavus was a bit disappointed that she'd have to sit this one out, but she promised she'd be cheering her hardest from backstage.
After the traditional not-particularly-good night's sleep, Serena and Ash made their way over to the stadium early the next morning.
"Good luck, Serena," Ash said. "You can do it!"
Serena smiled at him. "Thanks, Ash. See you once we're done," she said.
She made her way backstage, noticing that most of the competitors were keeping an eye on her. Some looked wary, some confident, but they were definitely paying close attention to everything Serena did, and she tried to ignore it as much as she could.
She called out her Pokémon and dug the outfits up out of her bag. Pancham would be wearing a small gi and a headband in place of his usual sunglasses, but Delphox and Sylveon would be costume-less for this performance, because both their appearances were pretty much perfect already. Serena, meanwhile wore a white dress with a few pink accents and white-and-pink ribbon, with a matching white-and-pink bow in her hair, making her look a bit like Sylveon.
"There! Now we match," she said to Sylveon once she finished adjusting her bow.
("It looks good on you,") Sylveon replied with a smile.
("You could be twins,") Misdreavus giggled. ("You have to do one where we can be twins too, okay?")
"If we get a chance to, I will," Serena promised. "Or maybe at the Grand Expo."
("Ooh, that would be awesome! If only I could use my Confuse Ray on the audience to scare them a bit…")
"Better not. I don't want to get disqualified," Serena said.
("I know, I know, I'll just…imagine it instead,") Misdreavus said with a sigh.
They made their way back to the waiting area, and shortly after the appeal orders were posted. This time, Serena would be third to go on, and she and her Pokémon found spots near a screen so they could keep an eye on the other contestants.
The show was opened by a black-haired young man using a Mightyena, Honchkrow, and Malamar in his appeal, which, while impressive, gave Serena a very uncomfortable feeling. The audience, however, didn't seem to be bothered, as a large majority voted for him, and the judges' panel would also surely be a formality, as the piece had shown off a great deal of Psychic skill from Malamar in spite of its overall Dark-type theme.
It therefore came as a bit of a surprise when Sabrina voted against. Was it simply because all the Pokémon the Artisan had used were Dark-type, or did she have a different reason? The sound on the screens in the waiting room was turned off, so Serena couldn't hear the explanation. It clearly wasn't a veto, in any case, because the audience applauded when Nikolaos had given his own passing vote, and the Artisan's body language was very confident when he made his way back.
The second performer also passed — Sabrina also voted in favor this time — and then it was Serena's turn to go on stage. Pancham went on first. He stood in the center of the field and waited for the music to begin. As soon as it did, he began doing stylized fighting moves, with lots of kicks and flips.
When he'd moved to the far end of the field, Delphox walked onto the stage, branch out, with a disdainful expression. Pancham stopped his flips and approached Delphox, ready to fight, and Delphox simply raised her branch in return.
She fired off a blast of Mystical Fire, which Pancham leapt over, countering with an Aerial Ace.
Delphox interrupted the attack with a Hidden Power attack from all sides, forcing Pancham into another dodge, but he kept up his forward momentum and swung at Delphox, who simply used her branch to redirect him.
The two of them engaged in an intricate choreography of Mystical Fire and Aerial Ace, before Pancham took some distance and charged up his Drain Punch.
A green glow appeared around his fist, and Delphox raised her branch, which crackled with pink-and-purple energy as she prepared to fire off a Psyshock.
They launched their attacks — but both were stopped cold by a shimmering Protect in the middle of the field, and the music, which had been growing ever more intense, stopped cold.
A Fairy Wind now whipped up and Delphox and Pancham looked around in alarm as Sylveon and Serena calmly walked onto the battlefield in the midst of a sparkling cloud, and the music slowly began to build up again, sounding more ethereal than before.
Pancham fired off a Dark Pulse at them, and Delphox used another Psyshock, but once again Sylveon's Protect stopped the attacks from hitting either her or Serena, who held up both of her hands in a gesture of peace.
The music sped up just a bit, and Serena and her Pokémon danced in time with it, with Serena first approaching Pancham and gently lowering his still raised fists, while Sylveon went over to Delphox and did the same thing.
Then, as the music began to swell one last time, Serena and Sylveon led Pancham and Delphox closer together, Serena holding Pancham's paw and Sylveon holding Delphox's with one of her ribbons.
Serena and Sylveon made Pancham and Delphox shake hands, and the moment they touched each other, Sylveon intensified her Fairy Wind into a vortex in time with the music, before shooting up a single Swift star, which popped and was swept up in the wind just when the music reached its lingering final note.
As the sound died out, so did the Fairy Wind, and Sylveon and Serena backed off, leaving Pancham and Delphox in their handshake, eyes locked.
The spotlights dimmed, and the audience began to cheer.
Serena smiled at Sylveon and joined Pancham and Delphox in the center of the battlefield, bowing politely to all sides.
"And that was the performance of Artisan Serena!" Nikolaos said. "Audience, please share your votes with us now!"
Green lights went on all around the arena and even though it was now her fifth Exposition, Serena still felt relieved when she saw it.
"Well, the audience have made their preference clear, by the looks of it, and now let's see the judges! Nurse Joy?"
It didn't take long before Nurse Joy's table turned green, and Nikolaos said, "One vote in favor! Next, Gym Leader Sabrina."
Serena wondered how Sabrina was going to vote here, given that she'd already voted against one contestant today, but her table turned green as well, and she even gave Serena a small smile.
"And that's two in favor! Closing the vote with myself, as usual…" Nikolaos said, and his table turned green. "Which means that Artisan Serena advances to the Showoff Round! Good luck there, Serena!"
Serena bowed to the judges and then made her way back to the waiting area.
"Great job, you three," she said as she walked.
("I still think that ending was a bit cheesy,") Pancham said, ("but I got to show off and the people liked it, so I'll take it.")
"I like the idea of solving things without fighting, if possible," Serena said with a shrug. "Violence should be a last resort, not first."
They reached their spot in the waiting room, where Misdreavus was already waiting.
("Hey! You did great! It really looked cool on the screen,") she said.
"Thanks, Misdreavus," Serena said with a smile. "I'm glad you liked it."
("Did you see my moves?") Pancham asked.
Misdreavus nodded with a giggle. ("Very cool,") she said indulgently.
"Excuse me, Serena?" a soft, cold voice behind Serena said, and she turned around to see the dark-haired Artisan who'd performed first in front of her, with his Malamar floating just behind him.
Though she'd seen that not all Malamar were evil, Serena still didn't really feel comfortable with them, and she tried not to show it when she said, "Yes, that's me."
The Artisan smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, which were dark brown, like Ash's, only lacking all of the warmth.
"My name is Hadrian. I've been following your Expositions since your win in Lavender Town," he said.
"Did you…compete there as well?" Serena asked.
Her heart was hammering in her chest. Something felt very off about this man.
"I did, but alas, I did not make it past the first round there," Hadrian said. "This time, though, I seem to have the crowd's favor a bit more."
Another cold smile.
"That's great," Serena said uneasily. What did Hadrian want from her?
Hadrian nodded slowly. "It is. It would be even greater, however, if my strongest competition here were to forfeit," he said.
"Forfeit?" Serena repeated, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the second.
"Indeed. It would save me so much trouble…" Hadrian said, and Malamar floated forwards, the spots on his body glowing, and Serena felt her mind going blank — a bright flash of light brought her back to her senses.
("Back off. Now,") Misdreavus said, floating between Serena and Malamar. She sounded just as angry as she'd done back in the Pokémon Tower.
Malamar floated backwards, looking dazed and frightened, and Hadrian scowled.
"Trying to protect your Trainer, little ghost?" he asked acidly.
("Not just her,") Delphox said, stepping forwards together with Pancham and Sylveon.
Hadrian scoffed, unimpressed, and said, "No matter. Taking you out this way would've been easier, but I guess I'll just have to defeat you in the Showoff Round. Just save yourself that embarrassment and forfeit before it gets that far."
He turned around and pulled the still dazed Malamar with him.
("Are you okay?") Misdreavus asked, and Serena nodded shakily.
"Y-yeah, thanks to you. What is it with evil Pokémon trying to hypnotize me?!" she asked in frustration.
("Yeah, um…") Misdreavus said softly, and Serena quickly shook her head.
"No, no! Not you! I mean, I know we met by you doing that, but I really didn't mean you, and you were never evil to begin with!"
She smiled at Misdreavus and went on, "Really, you saved me from getting hypnotized twice. You've more than made up for your own turn at trying it. Aside from those Malamar in Kalos, you're also the only one who actually managed it."
("I'll smash that guy's kneecaps if he shows up again,") Pancham said, cracking his knuckles.
Serena sighed. "That wouldn't solve anything. I guess we should just find an Exposition official and let them know what happened…maybe they can disqualify him before he does this to anyone else."
("If his Malamar knows what's good for him he won't,") Misdreavus said stonily. ("Or else I'll let him know fear like he's never known before.")
"What if he hypnotizes you first? Malamar is much better at it than Gengar. Their Hypnosis is supposed to be the strongest of any Pokémon, right?" Serena asked.
("My Confuse Ray is still faster. It's not that he can't hypnotize me, but it's just as big a risk for him as it is for me,") Misdreavus said. ("He could close his eyes, but so could I, and then neither of us would achieve anything. And he might be stronger than me alone, but he isn't stronger than all four of us,") she added, gesturing at Serena's other Pokémon with her hair.
Serena nodded uncertainly. The encounter had ended well this time, but she wasn't certain if Hadrian would try anything else. With Malamar's hypnotic powers, he wouldn't need much time to get to her, and she really wanted to prevent that.
She sighed and said, "Come on, all of you, let's go and find an official…"
Evil Malamar are a bit cliché, I guess, but they're even better at being shoved into that role than Hypno is, so I'll run with it. Hadrian's name is a bit of an in-joke for myself, although I'm sure many of you will know where I got it from. Suffice it to say that particular bit of fanon isn't one of my favorites.
I was debating putting the rest of the Exposition in this chapter as well, but full disclosure, I've finally picked up Pokémon Violet again and I want to play it a bit more, so I decided the second part can wait until the next chapter.
Tomorrow I probably won't have time to post, but I should be able to on Thursday, so see you then!