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| - May took a deep breath and finished changing into her costume. It looked almost like Lisia's apart from the fact that it was pink and had streamers instead of clouds. Knowing that she would have the same appeal as the superstar, she felt a little more confident in her abilities. She was still wildly thrown off by the fact that she was going second in a Pokémon Contest with absolutely no training whatsoever. Luckily, she had seen Pokémon Contests on TV and had the basic idea of what to do. All she had to do was go out there, dazzle with her costume, make sure her Pokémon looked good, and tell it to use as many pretty attacks as possible. Pretty easy, right? She looked over at the TV screen above her in the room and saw the first coordinator giving his Pokémon its appeal commands. It looked as if he was using a Beautifly and had it use Silver Wind to appeal to the judges. May could tell that the judges were very pleased with the Pokémon and gave it a good score. "How am I going to beat an experienced coordinator like that?" She asked herself with a groan. "This is going to be so embarrassing..." "Contest number two, please enter the stadium," the announcer called through the halls. "Well, here goes nothing..." May muttered to herself and practiced a deep breathing technique for a few seconds. She took slow, confident steps out the grande door from the changing room that led to the main stadium. The powerful open-stadium sunlight flooded her eyesight as the roaring noise of thousands of people cheering filled into her ears. She couldn't help but crack a smile and wave at all of the people that were cheering her on. "Hey, good luck!" She heard a familiar voice call out from behind her. She turned her head to see that Brendan managed to snag himself a front-row seat. "Don't do anything stupid and you'll have this contest in the bag!" "I won't..." she chuckled to herself and continued to walk up to the main stage. "And here we have the newcomer May Birch from Littleroot Town partaking in her first Pokémon Contest!" The announcer announced into the stadium. "Let's look to see what her choice of Pokémon is and what she does with it!" May took center staged and waved once more at the crowd. She figured that if she was in the spotlight, it would be better to just milk as much of it as possible. If she was nervous, then it would affect her performance negatively. And besides, who knew when this opportunity would come up again? Three judges sat behind a table and watched as May sighed and pulled out a PokéBall from her contest outfit's belt. Fortunately for her, she had already known what her main contest Pokémon would be when she first started her journey. "Torchic, let's get 'em!" She pumped her fist and sent out her Fire-type starter Pokémon. Torchic appeared from the PokéBall in a flash and chirped happily. It ran around in circles for a little bit, much to the crowd's pleasure. When it tired itself out, it hopped cutely and stood next to its trainer. "Aww!" The entire crowd roared. "Score!" May muttered to herself and pumped her fist. "And we're already off to a good start!" "And May has chosen Torchic as her Pokémon!" The announcer spoke into the mic in response to the crowd's cheers. "Now that May and Torchic have shown their appeal, it's time to move on to the talent round!" "Okay Torchic..." May muttered to her Pokémon. "Just stay cool and confident and we'll have this in the bag. The crowd loves you!" "Let's see what May does here!" "Alright Torchic, direct your Ember attack to the sky!" May commanded. Torchic nodded and charged up as much fire energy as possible within itself. When its energy had reached max capacity, it shot a flurry of tiny fireballs towards the sky. "Come on, May, what now?" She asked herself. "Wait a minute, Torchic! Jump into the air and use Peck on all of the little fireballs!" Torchic nodded again and hopped into the sky as far as possible. Realizing that it shot too many fireballs, it tried its best to destroy each one with its beak. However, there were more fireballs than it could handle in a set amount of time and it fell back to the ground. The entire crowd "booed" at May's attempt of an appeal. All three of the judges shook their heads behind the desk and had a small discussion about the appeal. "No, May, you've gotta be better than that..." Brendan shook his head from his seat. "Crap," May said to herself in reaction. She heard the "boos" from the crowd pound into her head. She had started her appeal off too well to be able to make silly mistakes! If she wanted to pull through and get a good score, she would have to be better with her commands. "What in the world was that display?" The announcer asked the audience. "I've never seen a more confused attempt at an appeal in my life. Let's hope May actually knows what she's doing..." Torchic sulked its way back to May in disappointment. It chirped sadly and looked up at its trainer. "Don't worry, Torchic, I've got something up my sleeve..." May reassured her Pokémon. "Okay, honestly, I don't. How about you try that again?" Torchic nodded and again spat a flurry of small fireballs into the sky. It hopped in the air again and tried to peck as many of the fireballs as possible. Even though it was able to destroy more, it still wasn't enough and most of the fireballs dissolved in the air. Knowing it didn't do what it was asked to do, it once again sulked back to its trainer. "Not again!" May complained and stomped her foot on the ground. She had no idea why she would even do that again. It was evident the first time that Torchic wasn't quick or powerful enough to pull off what she wanted it to do. She began to get nervous as she realized that her time was running out and she still hadn't thought of anything to do. "Did she really do that again? Even after the first failed attempt?" the announcer asked. "That's going to cost her a lot of points..." "Get it together, May!" Brendan shouted from his seat as he heard the crowd's "booing" intensify. "I know you're better than that! Come on, think of something!" "Torchic, I believe in you!" May told her Pokémon. "I know you can do it!" Torchic nodded slowly and looked to the sky again. If it wanted to perfect its appeal, it would have to be able to do something quickly. Thoughts flooded its tiny brain as it tried to work something out to be able to make its trainer proud. It knew May had invested a great amount of care into it and it had to be able to find a way to return the favor. May felt the connection with Torchic and looked at it with desperation. She knew it was trying its best to help her out, but she knew that it had more to offer. Torchic was capable of more, and both of them knew that. Suddenly, Torchic felt a spark light within itself and it glew in a bright white light. The entire crowd went silent to witness the event. "What's going on here!" The announcer stood up from his seat to get a better look. "Torchic!" May exclaimed. "Whoa..." Brendan smiled. The white light surrounding Torchic grew in size and height until it was almost half her height. When the light finally cleared, May could see that a more powerful Pokémon stood in Torchic's place. All of the judges just stared at the event in disbelief. The crowd went wild again. "I don't believe it! May's Torchic has evolved into Combusken right before our eyes!" "Awesome!" Brendan cheered and pumped his fist. "You can do this, May!" "Combusken..." May smirked at her newly evolved Pokémon. Combusken, determined to make its trainer proud, looked to the sky and cried out powerfully. The heat in the stadium intensified as the sun's rays became more powerful. "It appears that Combusken has used Sunny Day!" The announcer informed the audience. "You'd better prepare for a 'hot' performance!" "Nice pun..." May groaned at the announcer. Combusken looked back to May and flashed her a thumbs-up. It looked to the sky again and let loose a powerful beam of fire towards the intense sun. There was a small burst of light as the intense sunlight ended and orange sparkles rained down on the stadium. The crowd's cheering got louder and louder as they watched the result of Combusken's attack descend onto them. "Wow, a Sunny Day and Overheat combo created a sparkly precipitate!" The announcer exclaimed. "And the judges are signaling that May's stage time has ended! Let's see what the judges grade her with..." "Wait, where did you even learn those moves?" May asked her Pokémon as she stared wildly in disbelief. May looked to the judges and saw two them hold up giant "8"s while one held up a giant "9". She cheered to herself in content with her score. Even Combusken ran back to her to give her a big hug. "And the judges have given May a twenty-five out of thirty!" The announcer said. "Unfortunately, it's not going to be enough to win the contest, but it's fantastic for a rookie!" "Yeah May!" Brendan cheered wildly from his seat. "Whoo! I knew you could do it!" "You're awesome, Combusken!" May smiled and hugged her Pokémon tightly. "We did great!" May headed back into the backroom with her Pokémon and watched the rest of the contest from there. She could see that there were a lot of coordinators who were more experienced than her, but for her experience level, she was happy to receive the score she received. Even Combusken was surprised at its abilities. When the contest ended and the winners received their ribbons, May tried to find Brendan back in the entrance hall. Feeling accomplished with the result of her performance, she was ready to continue their journey. After a bit of sifting through people, she was able to find her traveling companion going through his PokéDex. "What're you doing?" She asked him. "Oh, just going through some of the Pokémon I was able to register in my PokéDex after today's contest," Brendan answered and put his PokéDex away. "But congratulations on the contest!" "Thanks!" "You got really lucky that Torchic evolved just there." "Hey, it wasn't luck!" May defended herself. "It was all Torchic's determination." "Yeah, okay, whatever." "Brendan..." she groaned irritably. "Hey, I'm just kidding," he smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "You did great! Maybe after training a bit more you can eventually win your first one." Lisia saw the two trainers talking and walked over to them. She figured that the least she could do was congratulate May on her performance and apologize for throwing her out there with no preparation. After all, May accepted her challenge. "Hey, May," Lisia said to her fellow coordinator. "You did, like, really great out there!" "Thanks, Lisia!" May beamed, once again in a starstruck state of paralysis. "You know, I did help her out a bit..." Brendan told the celebrity with a smirk. "That's, like, really great to know." Lisia dismissed him quickly and looked back to May. "I just, like, wanted to apologize and all for sending you out there with, like, zero preparation." "It's okay," May shrugged. "After all, it's I who should be thanking you for letting me do a contest! It was really fun!" "Well, that's, like, great to hear!" Lisia smiled. "I'm glad you had fun!" "You three over there!" A man abruptly ran over to the group and cut their conversation off. "You have to come see this trainer!" The three trainers confusedly followed the man over to a group of people who were intently watching a large TV screen. It seemed like some sort of news channel broadcasting a Pokémon battle. However, the fact that these people had their eyes glued to the screen meant that there was something special about this particular battle. "And we now return to the Mauville Gym!" The news anchor's grainy voice echoed from the TV set. "Wait, gym battles can be shown on TV?" Brendan asked in disbelief. "Yeah, if you, like, have enough badges and attract enough, like, media attention, then news reporters will, like, come and record your battles," Lisia answered. "I would know because, like, my uncle is a gym leader here in the Hoenn." "Huh, I guess it's time to start tailing the media," Brendan muttered. "I'll take any step to make sure everybody knows my name!" "Things aren't looking good for the Mauville Gym Leader Wattson as he is now down to has fourth and final Pokémon, his trusty Manectric!" The news anchor announced. "Wow, must be some powerful trainer," May commented. "This mysterious trainer has managed to knock out all of Wattson's Pokémon so far with only her Latias!" "WHOA!" May and Lisia exclaimed in unison. "A Latias!?" May asked in disbelief. "As in, she has a freaking Latias!?" "Like, the legendary Pokémon Latias!?" Lisia added in. "What's so cool about that, anyways?" Brendan asked. "I mean, Steven had a Regirock and it wiped the floor with me." "Yeah, but this is a Latias!" Lisia exclaimed. "It's, like, one of the rarest Pokémon in the world! And besides, you're just some ordinary trainer. Wattson is a Gym Leader!" "Hey, I'm not just any ordinary trainer!" Brendan crossed his arms in defense. "And Latias has finished Manetric off with a single Mist Ball!" The announcer exclaimed. "Can you believe it? This trainer now has three Hoenn badges using only her Latias! It's been a while since we've seen a trainer this powerful take on the Pokémon League challenge. At this pace, she will easily become the Pokémon League Champion." "Whoa, that is a strong Pokémon..." Brendan said with wide eyes. "One attack was all it took?" "See what we're talking about?" Lisia asked. "That's, like, totally a strong Pokémon." "I've always wanted to see one for myself!" May exclaimed. "To own one is way out of question." "Well, if I ever run into her, I'm gonna challenge her to a battle," Brendan said. "And I'm gonna make sure I win." The smoke cleared the battlefield and both trainers could see that Manetric had fallen to the ground. Wattson fell to his knees and slammed the ground hard with his fist. Latias spun in circles in celebration and flew in front of her trainer. "B-but how?" Wattson asked and called his Manetric back to its PokéBall. "It has been years since I have lost as hard as this. You destroyed me in my own gym!" "It was a good battle, Wattson," Olivia replied and called her Latias back to her PokéBall. "You have earned yourself the Dynamo Badge," he said as he got back up to his feet. He walked over to her with the badge in his hand. "I guess I should never underestimate any trainer with a legendary Pokémon." Olivia took the badge from his hand and nodded in thanks. The next gym she had to conquer was in Lavaridge Town. If she wanted to finally make her Pokémon League dreams come true, she would have to make it to Lavaridge as soon as possible.
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