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| - "Where am I?" He asked himself and shivered at the cold air. "What's going on?" A whir of darkness flew past him and he turned around rapidly to see if he could identify it. However, the lack of light in the cave made it difficult for Brendan to find anything. He just stood in one spot shivering in cold and fear. "Who's there...?" He asked softly. "Please stop whatever you're doing." The light murmuring of voices whispering drilled itself into Brendan's ears. Brendan slowly took steps towards where he felt the source of the voices came from, but they increased in volume regardless of where he went. "Get out of my head!" Brendan shouted and clutched his head. "It hurts..." Suddenly, the outline of the cave disappeared from Brendan's eyes. He could see that he was in a vast void of nothingness with a faint light in the distance. Something pulled his body faster and faster into the light until it appeared that he was plummeting out of the sky. He kept falling until he painlessly fell onto a rocky island. Despite the dark night sky producing no light, Brendan could see that island seemed to have no detail other than its brown sandstone form. Powerful waves crashed onto the shore and Brendan could feel the cold ocean wind tug at him. "What just happened?" Brendan asked himself before checking to see whether the fall damaged him. Clouds began to take form in the sky as a light rain began its descent. Eventually, more and more water droplets formed in the sky at the light rain turned into a heavy downpour. Powerful flashes of lightning lit up the night sky and heavy thunder pounded at Brendan's ear drums. The ocean began to spiral within itself as a massive whirlpool took form. Lightning struck the center of the whirlpool as a large blue Pokémon leaped up from the water. It glared at Brendan with bright yellow eyes and let out high pitched roar. "Holy shit!" Brendan exclaimed and turned around to run in the opposite direction. However, his actions were stopped as he noticed the massive red Pokémon standing in his way. Brendan screamed in fear as he looked at the towering Pokémon. It lowered its head to Brendan and roared at him with all of its energy. Brendan cowered down to the ground as the red Pokémon leapt into the sky to attack the blue Pokémon. The two legendary Pokémon met in the middle of the air as there was a large explosion and they were both sent flying backwards. The blue Pokémon was thrown into the water and the red Pokémon crashed into the ground as the land swallowed it up. An image of the Granite Cave mural flashed in Brendan's head as he realized suddenly that he was witnessing the ancient war of the Hoenn Region. These two Pokémon were fighting to control the water-land balance of the Hoenn Region and were destroying the planet along with it. Before anything else could happen, Brendan's vision went black. Brendan woke up in a sweat with a racing heart. He instantly propped himself up in his bed and tried to regain his breath. In his terrible nightmare, he was sure he had witnessed the first ancient war in the Hoenn Region. As his vision slowly came to him, he could see that he was in a small bedroom with all four of his Pokémon sleeping soundly on the floor. Even his unusually golden Magikarp had found a place on the floor to visit dreamland on. To his relief, none of his Pokémon were deformed or even showed signs of suffering through a nightmare. It was then that he remembered that he and May had decided to stay overnight in a Pokémon Center so Mr. Briney could get back to his house in Petalburg. At the same time, Steven and Aiden had bidded their farewells from the group and went on to do their own things. He quickly called his sleeping Pokémon back to their PokéBalls and ran to the bathroom to get ready. After a quick few minutes brushing, shaving, showering, and changing, Brendan was ready to start the day. He adjusted his white hat as he looked in the mirror and gave his reflection an approving thumbs-up. Finally, he packed up all of his belongings and tidied up the room so it looked as nice as it did when he checked in. "That was some crazy nightmare," Brendan mumbled to himself as images of the two super ancient Pokémon flashed in his head. "But... why was Darkrai showing me this?" A loud knocking noise interrupted his train of thought as he noticed that somebody was at his door. He quickly rushed over to the door and opened it to find May standing on the other side already dressed to go and tapping her foot impatiently. "You were supposed to be up one hour ago," May complained and held up the clock page of her PokéNav for Brendan to see. "It's 10 A.M. now and I'm going to be late to watch the Slateport City Pokémon Contest." That's when Brendan also remembered that May had told him she wanted to watch the Pokémon Contest at Slateport's own contest hall. In fact, the world famous contest star Lisia and her Altaria, Ali, would be there. How could he possibly have forgotten? "Sorry..." Brendan groaned. "I just had another terrible nightmare." "It's okay," May sighed. "Care to talk about it?" "Well, it pretty much had to do with the Hoenn war that Steven told us about earlier," Brendan explained and began to walk down the stairs with his traveling companion. "Do you remember how they fought for control of the region?" "That's what your nightmare was about?" May asked as the two approached the front desk on the first floor. "Hold on a sec, I'll check us both out." Brendan sat on a nearby bench as May handed the keys to Nurse Joy at the front desk. After exchanging a few words, May headed back over to him. "Ready to go?" He asked and stood up. "Yeah," May nodded and strapped her backpack. "Now continue telling me what happened." By the time Brendan had explained his dream to May, they had already found themselves at Slateport's massive Contest Hall. The building looked like a hybrid between a royal castle and a battle stadium. As large as it was, Brendan and May could have easily confused it for the Pokémon League. "Wow, this place is huge," Brendan commented and looked up at the building. "And the contest is about to start!" May exclaimed and checked the time on her PokéNav. "We don't want to be late!" "More like you don't want to be late..." Brendan groaned and followed her inside. Despite May's worries, it appeared that the contest hadn't started yet. People were still scattered about talking in their groups and taking pictures of one another. It seemed as if Brendan and May stood out as everybody else was dressed classy. The two trainers, on the other hand, were wearing the same raggy old clothes they had been traveling around with. "Wow, maybe there was a lot more preparation involved in watching a contest than I expected," May said and observed all of the rich, upper-class people waiting anxiously for the contest to begin. However, one specific person in the distance caught her attention rather quickly. "Over there, it's Lisia!" "Lisia?" Before Brendan could receive a response, she had disappeared in a flash. He groaned and walked over to the crowd of people swamping the Hoenn celebrity to find May. When he arrived, he could see that this Lisia girl was nothing short of gorgeous. It seemed that her entire blue appeal revolved around the Altaria perched next to her. She had fake clouds wrapped around her wrists and ankles and sky blue hair and clothing matched up perfectly with her Pokémon. The one feature that took Brendan's breath away, however, was her deep blue eyes which much resembled shining sapphires. The best part was that she was his age! "Wow..." Brendan mumbled to himself dreamily. "Lisia!" A news interviewer called out to her. "Who's your next contestant for 'pick-me-to-be-a-star'?" Lisia observed the crowd around her carefully before she made her pick. Brendan waved his arms wildly so she would pick him. While he had no interest in Pokémon Contests, he just wanted the chance to talk to her. She ignored him and instead looked at a starstruck May who was frozen in place. "I pick her!" Lisia exclaimed with a smile as the crowd groaned and pushed May forward. "No!" Brendan complained and crossed his arms. "Wait a minute, she picked May! That means there's a chance!" "M-me!?" May asked with wide eyes in disbelief. "Y-you want to p-pick me?" "Hi! Have you never joined in a contest?" Lisia asked May in her signature high-pitched voice. May, still starstruck, could not open her mouth to respond. "That's, like, just what I wanted to hear!" Lisia exclaimed in response to the silence. "Good, now let's, like, get this show on the road!" "What a good choice!" Brendan exclaimed with a smirk and came in between Lisia and May. He looked to the superstar and offered his hand. "Hi, I'm Brendan and I just happen to be your choice superstar's body guard." "Get out of here, Brendan," May groaned and hurriedly shoved him off to the side. "This is the Trainer I'm gonna scout today!" Lisia exclaimed and pulled May into the camera's spotlight. "And her name is..." "May! May Birch!" "And May Birch is, like, going to be the next contest superstar!" Lisia exclaimed into the camera. "Anyways, that's all for today's segment of 'pick-me-to-be-a-star'!" As the cameras stopped rolling, the crowd around the group dissipated. While Lisia was a superstar and people wanted to be as close to her as possible, they knew when she wanted her alone time and left her with the two trainers. "Now that all of the cameras are gone, you can honestly tell me if you don't want to do this," Lisia sighed and started to sniffle. "I mean, it's not like nobody ever wants to actually do this or anything..." Out of nowhere, she started crying softly. Both trainers, still confused, didn't know how to react. Her Altaria didn't even seem to care, almost as if it was like a common occurrence. "Are... are you okay?" Brendan asked her softly. "Maybe if you backed off of her," May pulled her friend away before looking to Lisia. "Are... are you okay?" "It's just that, like, everybody gets excited about this because they, like, want to be in this spotlight!" The starlet cried. "But then when it comes time for, like, the contest, everybody is too lazy or too apathetic to actually, like, want to be a part of it." "There, there..." Brendan comforted the girl and placed his arm on her shoulder. "Please don't touch me," Lisia slowly removed his arm from around her. "Brendan..." May chuckled and shook her head. "But I'll honestly do it." "Really?" Lisia's eyes beamed at May's response. "You'll actually, like, enter the contest?" "But didn't the contest already start?" May asked and looked to the time on her PokéNav. "In fact, I think it's fifteen minutes in." "No, everybody likes to be fashinably late for me," Lisia answered. "Apparently the crowd loves it." "Strange crowd, I guess?" May shrugged. "Anyways, I'll seriously enter the contest. Since I usually help my dad research Pokémon, I've always been more into a Pokémon's capabilities than a Pokémon's battling strengths." "This is wonderful!" Lisia smiled and clasped her hands together. "Okay, umm, just, like, follow me into the changing room!" She tugged May by her arm and dragged her through the gates. Brendan attempted to follow them but was stopped by security. "And who do you think you are?" One of the security guards, who was clearly three times larger than Brendan, asked. "Um... I'm that girls friend..." Brendan cowered. "I mean no harm, Mr. Security Guy." "If you don't wanna get kicked out, then I suggest you play by the rules, okay?" The second security guard warned him. "Okay..." Brendan nodded softly as the two left him alone. "Well, this sucks..." Over in the changing room, Lisia was busy picking out dresses for May from the closet. As May was still very starstruck, she thought it would be best for Lisia to choose her dress. If she wanted to wear something for a crowd of thousands to see, it would have to be from Lisia's expertise. She was the contest star after all! "Ooh, this one looks fabulous!" Lisia exclaimed and pulled out a flowery pink dress almost identical to her own out of the hangers. "It almost, like, reminds me of something." "It looks great!" May responded and took the dress from Lisia's hands. She held it next to herself to get an idea of how it would look. "Yup, this is definitely my choice!" "Well then get changed, like, quickly!" Lisia told her. "You're second!" "I'm... I'm second?" May asked, dumbfounded. "Like I, the trainer with zero experience in contests, am the second trainer to go on?" "Yup!" "Umm... well... okay then." May swallowed. "I'll just get ready and all." "Fabulous!" Lisia smiled and left May to herself. "What have I gotten myself into?" She thought to herself as a thousand thoughts flooded her mind. Yeah, she wanted to be a world famous Pokémon coordinator, but she at least wanted to have some preparation time! She sighed deeply and began to change. If anything, she figured that she'd at least go through with the contest for Lisia's sake.
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