Sorry for the delay. I’ve been caught up in my own mind for nearly the past week. I’ve come up with a new story that has nothing to do with Shadow and Light, and I’ve been busy obsessing over it. Argh. I go through these cycles now and then, so please bear with me.
Chapter Eleven
The trek up Coronet was a silent and uneventful one. None of the trainers talked much about the Cherry Blossom Festival. While they were descending the mountain to enter Hearthome, an abandoned building caught Katie’s eyes. It was a small, grey warehouse whose windows were missing. Something inexplicable pulled Katie toward it.
“Hey, where are you going?” Samantha asked.
“I’m going to check out this building,” Katie answered, ducking inside. David and Samantha followed after her.
Glass crunched underneath her feet as she walked past rooms filled with computers and machinery. At the end of the passageway, she stepped into a room filled with shelves. Sodden books still filled them. Beside a computer lay three, aged pictures of ruins depicting three small, elfin creatures.
“I wonder what these Pokemon are?” she asked aloud, laying a hand on them. David took a look at them, and shook his head.
“Whatever they are, they must be legendary,” he said, tracing over the ruins on the blanched photographs with one of his fingers. Samantha simply examined the pictures as if trying to faintly recall some knowledge of the Pokemon depicted in them.
“They are, indeed, legendary.” Before she turned around, Katie marveled at the fact that Pluto could slip into the room without her detecting him. It was both amazing and disorienting, but there he was. “Those are the legendaries of the lakes, Uxie, Azelf, and Mespirit.”
“Really?” Samantha asked, glancing again at the pictures.
“Yes. Now, what are you three doing here?”
“I don’t know, ask her,” David said, pointing to Katie.
She shrugged. “We were just looking around.”
“You’re lucky I was the commander sent to investigate the base.”
“The base?”
“Yes. This warehouse was once a base for Team Galactic years ago.” He cleared his throat. “You three will be leaving now.”
The rest of their journey into Hearthome was uneventful. Samantha signed up at the contest hall for the next day’s contest, and the three trainers settled into the Pokemon Center that night.
The next day, they woke up bright and early and headed back to the contest hall. In the coordinators’ dressing room, Samantha put on a long, violet dress. As she tied her hair up with a blue ribbon, she saw Ashley step into the room, wearing a short blue dress and heels. She smiled when she saw Samantha.
“Well, isn’t it little newbie, Samantha Lynn. It’s nice to see you competing. So cute.” She giggled. “Too bad you entered the wrong contest.” She winked. “See you on the contest floor.” With that, she left the dressing room.
Samantha balled her hands into fists tightly. “I am so beating you, Ashley McCauley,” she muttered under her breath.
“Welcome one and all to the Hearthome Pokemon Contest!”
Jillian looked radiant in a long, green velvet dress that swirled to the floor around her feet. She gripped the microphone through white gloved hands. As Katie looked out across the contest hall, she noticed that most of the coordinators and judges present at the contest were dressed in glittering colors and formal dresses and suits. The Hearthome contests were just as important as the Grand Festival, for a Hearthome ribbon counted as two ribbons toward the qualifying ribbon count for the Festival.
Sitting at the judges’ table were three very familiar faces. At the end sat Dawn, who was dressed in a long, poofy blue dress and white heels. The dress was the exact shade of her dark blue hair, which was pinned back with a silver clip. She was chatting excitedly with the older woman beside her, who had long, graying purple hair and deep amber eyes. White gloves snaked all the way up her arms, and a purple, glittering dress hung from her shoulders. Katie smiled, anticipating her gym match with Fantina, who was both a powerful ghost gym leader and a star coordinator. Recently, she had abolished the rule that only trainers with four badges could challenge her gym, so Katie expected to battle her during her first trip through Hearthome.
Finally, beside Fantina, sat May. She wore a short, red halter dress, and her brown hair was tied up with a red ribbon. Sapphire light shone in her eyes as she waited with anticipation of the appeals round. Catching Katie’s eyes, she smiled and waved.
‘We have a line-up of experienced coordinators in our contest today, desperate for a chance to win the famed Hearthome ribbon that will count for two ribbons toward the five-ribbon Grand Festival count!” Jillian held up a bright blue ribbon the color of ice. “So, we’re going to start right away with our appeals round! First up is Lacey, from Eterna City!”
Lacey was a tall and skinny girl with long curly blonde hair. She wore a bright green dress that reached her knees in the front and the floor in the back. “Go, Lopunny!” With an explosion of flowers, Lacey’s tall, bunny-like Pokemon appeared. “Ice Beam!” Lopunny spun on one foot, releasing a beam of freezing energy into the air. Part of the stage froze, including the ground underneath her feet. Katie watched with amusement as the bunny skated across the floor. “Dizzy Punch!” Lopunny’s hands started to glow. Shards of ice flew into the air as the attack smashed through the ice pillars on the floor. The hall’s lights shone off of the shards, causing a glittering rainbow to appear overhead.
The next person to step onto the stage was Ashley, who was dressed in a dark blue dress similar in design to May’s. She released a Milotic, which curled up on the contest floor and raised her head to the ceiling. “Water Pulse into Screech!” Milotic’s screech, though loud, was not terrible to the ears. Sound waves filled the hall as an orb of water swirled into the frey. The waves pushed the orb up, causing it to rise up off of the floor. “Shadow Ball!” With extreme accuracy, the orb of shadow energy slammed into the Water Pulse, causing it to explode and send a shower of water to the floor.
“She’s pretty good,” Katie whispered to David, who simply nodded. He had watched his sister compete in contests for years, and he knew full well how good she was.
A boy ran onto the stage after Ashley. He wore a black suit that clashed with his dark green hair. Chucking a Poke Ball into the stage, he yelled, “Go, Venusaur!” a large, dinosaur-lie grass-type appeared, stomping his feet to shake the hall floor. “Razor Leaf!” A flurry of leaves filled the air around Venusaur, swirling into a tornado. “Petal Dance into Vine Whip!” Petals shot into the air, mixing with the leaves. Seconds later, the mixture spun above the crowd, propelled by a fierce Vine Whip. It cascaded back down to the floor in a waterfall of leaves and petals.
As Samantha stepped onto the stage, she was nearly knocked over by the combined effect of the cheering crowd and blinding lights. She let her Poke Ball fly into the air, releasing her Chimchar. The baby fire-type raised his arms into the air and cried out adorably. “Ember!” Chimchar sprang into the air, spinning as he fired his ember attack around the stadium. “Now, Fire Punch!” As Chimchar’s fist slammed into each ember, an explosion of flames rocked the stadium. “Swift!” The rest of the embers disappeared into golden stars that swirled around Chimchar.
Samantha returned to the waiting room, holding Chimchar above her head. “You did so well for your first contest!” Chimchar responded with a chirp as he returned to his Poke Ball. Ashley walked up to Samantha, a smirk plastered on her face.
“Well, well, are we competing with babies now?” Ashley laughed meanly. “You can’t have been training that Chimchar for more than a month.”
“That may be so, but Chimchar is skilled enough to win the appeals round, I have no doubt,” Samantha said, straighting her ponytail. Ashley rolled her eyes, but said nothing. She simply stalked away, her Glaceon following her every step. Samantha sighed. If she made it into the battle rounds, Ashley would be her biggest opponent. Leafeon would have a hard time battling Glaceon, so her strategy needed to work, and fast.
That afternoon, the finalists were announced. Both Samantha and Ashley had advanced to the next round, as well as two other coordinators who had placed high in the rankings. Samantha was pitted against a boy named Hamilton who was from Cherrygrove City in Jhoto. He had dark brown hair and grey-blue eyes, and was dressed in a nice black suit.
As the beginning buzzer sounded, Samantha released Leafeon, who took his battle stance in front of her. Hamilton released a large Feraligatr who towered over both Leafeon and Samantha. The water-type’s ruby red eyes followed their every tiny movement, causing Samantha to grow increasingly nervous. She gritted her teeth. “Leafeon, Shadow Ball!”
Feraligatr was thrust backward by a huge blast of dark energy. Not to be deterred, he lunged forward quickly with an Ice Punch. Despite his speed, he was easily dodged by Leafeon, who sent a flurry of leaves smashing into the huge water-type.
“Feraligatr, use Ice Punch again!” Hamilton shouted. Samantha smirked. Any close combat move from Feraligatr would result in a barrage of long-range arracks. In fact, he had barely taken three steps forward before another Razor Leaf smashed into him, causing him to crumple, unconscious, to the ground.
As Jillian announced her victory, Samantha bowed deeply to the cheering crowd, sneaking a smiling glance at her grass-type. He grinned, happy to have won another match for his coordinator.
Not surprisingly, Ashley won her own match against her opponent, taking down her opponent’s Tangrowth with ease. Samantha winced as Glaceon reared back, unleashing a torrent of icicles on her opponent. Tangrowth slammed into the ground, knocked out.
Finally, it was time for Samantha and Ashley’s match.
“Go, Leafeon!” Samantha cried out, releasing her grass-type.
“Go, Glaceon!” Ashley exclaimed, releasing her ice-type.
“Let this final contest battle begin!” Jillian exclaimed.
“Glaceon, Ice Beam!” Ashley yelled. Leafeon dodged the beam of ice easily, but slipped and crashed on the frozen floor. A Shadow Ball knocked him back.
“Shadow Ball!” Samantha called out. The blast rebounded off of the icy floor, slamming into Glaceon, who released a barrage of Shadow Balls that pinned Leafeon down. Samantha’s mind searched frantically for a plan to get Leafeon up.
“Now, Glaceon, Ice Beam!” Ashley shouted. The force of the attack sent Leafeon spiraling backwards. He crashed into the ground, unconscious.
Samantha knew that she had been at a disadvantage. She just didn’t know that the battle would be so short.
“That was a tough battle,” Katie confessed when she and David met Samanthat outside of the contest hall. Samantha ducked her head, and didn’t say a word. Her shoulders started to shake. Katie put an arm around her. “Next time, Ashley’s going down.”
David sighed. It would be a while before Samantha could become good enough to beat Ashley. She would just have to train harder.
That night, Katie lay awake in bed, wondering what her battle strategy would be for the next day. No matter. Umbreon could take Fantina’s entire team down.
The next morning, bright and early, Katie woke up to train with Umbreon. They would win the gym battle, for sure.
By the time David and Samantha woke up, Katie was ready to go out the door and to the gym. They groaned. It was too early for their taste.
Fantina was waiting inside the gym, still dressed in her contest outfit from the night before. She lifted her gaze from her fingernails to Katie’s face and smiled. “I though you would show up in my gym today.” She had a sharp French accent that grated slightly on Katie’s nerves. Pushing herself up off of her chair, she yawned. “Follow me.”
Since you reviewed more than once, I'm going to add you to the PM list. 