"Holy shit," Kris muttered as she stared at the crowd. "D-did the whole town show up? There must be at least…" She counted on her fingers, but she quickly ran out. "A lot of people here! I thought it'd only be like ten! Maybe twenty!"
"I mean, isn't that a good thing?" Ethan asked, walking beside her with a boombox hefted over one shoulder as they made their way towards the tennis court. Gym Court, Kris mentally corrected. "All these people showing up, just to see you battle! And paying for it too!"
"I mean, the money is good and all but," Kris bit her lip. "I-it's so much easier when I streamed. Those people were just looking at me through a camera, they weren't there. But now…now all these people are here and they're going to be looking at me Ethan! And they're all going to be judging me! W-what do I do?!"
"Just act natural, Kris." Ethan fished something out of his bag, a small orange berry bar. "Here," She barely managed to catch it, juggling it for a moment before she finally had it in her grasp. "Made from Nanab berries. Should help calm your nerves."
"Does it really work?" Kris sniffed it. It smelt bitter as hell, and a little sour, her face scrunched up at the scent.
"Worked for me." Ethan shrugged. "Ate one when I tackled my first gym. Granted, I thought Falkner was going to be a lot tougher, but I beat his team easily with my Magnemite. Just don't start depending on them. They taste kind of," While he'd been yapping, Kris had gobbled it down, gagging loudly as she tried not to let it come back up. By Arceus, it was terrible! Why hadn't he warned her?!
"…Awful." Sighing, Ethan shook his head. "Just do your best Kris, and everything will be alright."
Kris gulped. She'd done her best all those years ago back during her initial pokemon journey, and her best had turned out to be pretty shit. But, she was a better trainer now! With Ethan's crash course in battling, and juicing up her pokemon with…vitamins, she was at least ten percent certain she would emerge victorious!
And that was nine percent more than when she'd started!
They were slowly getting closer to the Gym Court, the full moon shining down as the townsfolk sat in plastic lawn chairs, guzzling down moonshine and eating hotdogs from a stand. Her stomach rolled at the sight of so many people, and Kris really hoped she didn't puke in front of her audience.
"Do your best." She muttered to herself, letting Loaf loose from his pokeball. "Just gotta remember that and everything will turn out great!" If she acted confident, then surely, she would be confident! Activating the streaming function on her rotom-dex, the device slowly levitated right beside her. A few drops of sweat dripped down her brow as she shook a little, but she made sure to keep those pearly whites showing!
"H-h-hey! What's up chat!" Slowly, hand twitching as she raised her fingers up in a peace sign. "Sorry, it's been a while since I've last streamed, but I promise, it'll all be worth it, cause you're gonna get to see New Bark Town's finest trainer in action! Watch, as I, Kris, defeat five trainers in a gauntlet match, with five thousand pokedollars on the line!"
Her chat lit up, as far more than her usual fifty entered her Twitcher Stream! The number quickly grew from fifty, to a hundred, to a hundred and fifty! Her biggest stream yet! And it kept going up till it reached nearly two hundred! Already, she could practically envision the donations rolling in! Already, a few had donated five hundred pokedollars saying:
Blud's about to get wiped! Followed by three crying emojis.
We're gonna see a murder on live stream! With a skull emoji.
Bro, I wanted to watch her rage at Pokestrike, but this looks way better! Followed by a sparkling Dunsparce emoji.
At least the comment was a little positive! Her spirit's lifted a little, she finally made her way onto her Gym Court. And suddenly, all eyes were on her. Looking at both sides of the court, she could see staring at her with barely concealed glee. And not the good kind. Except for her parents, who had that kind of look that said they'd rather be anywhere else, but only really showed up because their kid was there.
That didn't lend her a lot of confidence for her event.
Letting out an audible gulp, the edges of her smile twitched a little, and she was worried that she was starting to look a little unhinged.
Nearly impossible, considering how beautiful she knew she was, but it still could happen!
She nearly jumped as she felt a hand slip onto her shoulder, but she realized it was Ethan and felt herself relax a little. Loaf rubbed against her leg, the child-sized land snake hissing playfully up at her as she smiled down at him. She could do this! She would do this! And then everyone would realize how great she was and stop making fun of her!
No more insults, no more jabs, and no more haters! Kris would finally be the trainer she always knew she could be!
"Hey e-ev," Her voice cracked a little and she coughed into her hand. "Hey everybody! Glad to see you all gathered her today for the New Bark Town Tournament! Uh, t-tonight, you're gonna see a w-wild show and h-hopefully have a great time watching me take on five challengers. So just sit back, r-relax, and enjoy the food and drink as I put on the best show this town has ever seen!"
They were all silent for a moment, nothing but the distant hoots of Hoot-Hoots filling the air, until one audience member opened their mouth.
"Two Thousand Pokedollars that Two-Legged Lechonk loses her first battle!" The audience erupted into cheers, and her chat erupted into laughing emojis. Kris clenched her teeth to keep herself from screaming at them.
A real Gym Leader wouldn't let a stupid heckler bother them! They would show the whole crowd who was boss through their badass skills and even more badass pokemon! And if these stupid fucks thought they could make her cry on the court, then they were sadly mistaken!
Wiping her eyes on the back of her coat sleeve, which were wet because of the stupid dust in the air, she simply released her Azurill onto the court, the shiny green mouse bobbing on its tail with a gleeful smile on its face. Ethan placed the boombox a few steps behind her, turning the volume up as it began to play a booming, and more importantly, copyright-free tune known as Darude Sandshrewstorm.
"Would the first contestant step onto the court?"
She was going to show these little bastards who was boss!
xXx
Professor Elm glared at the man who insulted his daughter, but kept his mouth shut. Dealing with the man would be easy, given his ol' connections, but he wasn't too concerned with the bastard. Rather, his attention was focused fully on his daughter.
Had she really gotten better as Ethan had told him, or was she just fucking around like usual?
It's terrible to think about your own daughter like that. Professor Elm knew this, but he couldn't help it. He loved his daughter, and always would, but he could admit that she was a complete disappointment.
It had been a dream of his, to have his little girl involved with the pokemon sciences like he was, to help discover new evolutions and push the boundaries of what pokemon were capable of. But Kris had thoroughly dashed that dream. Even still, he'd thought she would take after his wife, become a decent pokemon trainer and make a living as an Ace Trainer.
And still, she had failed at that. And kept failing, until Elm wondered where he had gone wrong. For years, it had felt like a constant humiliation to be one of the premier pokemon professors of Johto, only to have a daughter with none of the same work interests nor work ethic as he, who was content to lazily stream in the hopes of making it big.
When she'd come to him, talking about being a Gym Leader, he'd thought it was just another escapade of hers. But Kris had actually stuck to her goal, practicing and training under Ethan's watchful eye.
He wouldn't get his hopes up now, not with her history, but as he watched her whip out an Azurill that at least looked competently trained. Seems entrusting her with Ethan had been the right choice. Although the boy was a bit of wasted talent as far as Elm was concerned, for he'd no doubt the boy could have been champion had he tried for the seat, Ethan was still a powerful trainer despite being a year or two out of practice.
Elm would entrust his daughter to no other.
"Honey, do you want me to go get the peanut-butter cookie cake ready?" Dee asked, his wife glancing at their daughter with worry. She grabbed his arm, her touch a little cold. "To help tide her over when she loses?"
"No." Elm shook his head. "Let's see what she can do."
The first contender was a fat drunk, Larry, if Elm remembered right. Man was halfway pissed already when he sent out a Ekans, putting Kris on the backfoot from the very start. With her attempts at being a Fairy Type Gym Leader, Poison and Steel would be the very worst typing for her to face. Elm sighed. Maybe he should have let Dee start baking the-
"Azure, use Mud-Slap!" The little green mouse dug into the ground with it's round tail and slung several heaps of dirt into the Ekan's eyes, the snake screeching as it furiously wiped it's face. "Bubblebeam that little bastard till he's out!"
Bloating slightly, a storm of bubbles spilled from the tiny little water mouse, slamming into the Ekans at full force and sending it skidding across the ground, knocked out cold. Elm stared at the Ekans. Larry stared at the Ekans. Everyone stared at the Ekans, only for their attention to be drawn towards his blue-green haired daughter.
"I…I won?" A smile nearly split her face. "I actually won-er," She coughed into her hand. "I mean, of course I did! When trying to fight my Fairy pokemon, you better bring a stronger team than that!" Kris winked at her rotom-dex, the chat erupting on the screen. "Would the next contestant step onto the court?"
The professor's lips twitched as he watched the next contestant make their way down to the court, a little more wary than the last. Maybe Elm was being a little too harsh on his daughter and she could be a competent trainer after all.
And if Arceus was good, a Gym Leader too.
He would have to wait and see. But if she actually managed to finish this gauntlet, than maybe a reward was in order.
"C'mon Kris." Elm whispered, feeling a faint bit of hope that he hadn't felt in a long time. "Show me what you got."
AN: Hope? In my Twitch Thot fic? It's more likely than you think :D! Anyway, this is the start of Kris's redemption arc, so don't come running back when she's a gym leader, don't come running back when she's rich, don't come running back when she's famous, cause NONE of y'all were there for her comeback! lmao. Hope you enjoyed this update, and as always, you can read a chapter ahead on my socials. Peace!