Here we go
------------------------------
Chapter One: The Pokémon Contest
Hearthome City was known worldwide for its contests. It was said that if a Pokémon Coordinator wanted to make it big in the world, then Hearthome was the place to start.
The city itself was noted for its vastness, and also popularity. It was noted that the city had the fastest growing population wise, and was recently voted “Most Family Friendly in Sinnoh” for the third year running. Hearthome resembled a typical large city. It had many suburbs surrounding the inner city, where people lived and worked. The inner city was dotted with tall, silver skyscrapers, and in the centre of the hustle and bustle sat a large, dome-like building.
The building was known as the Super Contest Hall, where the best Coordinators from all regions of the world came to compete in the contests. Usually the building’s roof was absent, however on this particular day it had been placed over the building due to the unusually early start to spring.
Heavy rainfall fell outside, while inside the stadium was lined with nearly thirty-thousand people, all sitting in chairs that lined the side of the stadium, watching in awe at the contest at hand. At the northern end of the stadium was a large oak table. Behind the table sat three judges, who had flown in to judge the finals of the Sinnoh Contest Championships.
The first judge was a short, middle aged man who had most likely eaten too many donuts in his lifetime. He was dressed in a brown suit, his grey hair slicked back, and his bushy moustache covering most of his face. The second judge was a woman, dressed in a purple, sequined dress that belonged a few fashion eras in the past. Bright pink lipstick had been dragged across her wrinkled face, blue eye shadow completing the outfit.
The third and final judge was not qualified for judging Contests. Organisers of the event had decided to make a last minute change and fly in the biggest movie star of the moment, seventeen year old Rhett Weston, international superstar. His black hair was stylishly spiked; blue polarized sunglasses covered his bright blue eyes. He was dressed in a long sleeved white shirt, black pants and a blue tie. He slumped back in his chair, giving the impression that he really could NOT be bothered being here at the current time, and the only reason that he WAS here was for a hefty pay check.
In the crowd, girls between the ages of fifteen and twenty five were smitten with what each and every one of the called “love”. Of course, this was entirely untrue; they had just been overcome by his ridiculously good looks.
There was, however, one particular girl, sitting half way up on the eastern side of the stadium that could not have cared less about the superstar that was in the same place as her.
Dressed in a blue t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, Samantha “Sam” Preston was waiting for the contest battle to begin. She had silver hair tied back into a knot. Piercing green eyes gazed across the stadium towards the contestant’s entrance.
She thought he looked like a tosser, an absolute loser, and had no idea why girls, in particular the one sitting next to her, were so besotted.
“I don’t get it Sarah,” she said, “I mean, what’s so good about him anyway?”
“Didn’t you see his last movie? The one where him and that mermaid fell in love? Seriously Sam, sometimes I worry about you. Can’t you just be a normal girl every now and then? I mean, we’re almost eighteen. Surely there’s a guy that you like?”
The girl called Sarah was dressed in a cleavage-showing, short blue dress in the hope that Rhett would gaze over in their direction and see her. Her blonde hair was straightened, coming down just past her shoulders. Her face was covered with heavy makeup, in an effort to hide every blemish that may have been present.
Sam had never been one for make-up. Her idea was that if you got a pimple, you didn’t cover it up; you’d just deal with it.
“Of course there are guys that I like... Oh for goodness sake, Sarah, would you stop doing that?”
Sarah had pulled a pale pink coloured lip gloss from the handbag at her feet, and had proceeded to reapply it.
“What? Sam, what if he sees me and my lip gloss has all faded? Can you imagine how embarrassing that would be?”
Sam sighed. It was true, at least in Sarah’s case. If the movie star had looked at her without a perfect application of makeup, it was highly likely that Sarah would keel over and die right then and there.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” a man’s voice boomed across the stadium, “The time has come! Let the final begin! Please welcome our Coordinators! In the Northern corner, all the way from Johto, Miss Rebecca Trentson!”
The crowd roared as a tall woman dressed in a black suit entered the stadium. A red belt sat on her hips, holding three pokéballs. She waved, before taking her place on the stadium floor.
“And in the Southern corner, our home-grown hero! Please welcome Alesha van Hewett!”
The crowd roared even louder than before as a short, brown haired girl entered the stadium. She was dressed in a white mini-skirt and pink t-shirt, with a black beret placed off centre on the top of her head. She too waved at the crowd, smiling and laughing at the cheers.
“Let the appeals begin! Rebecca, please step forward!”
The woman stepped forward, smiling at Alesha. She took the first pokéball from her belt, throwing it into the air.
In a bright flash of light the ball opened, releasing a tiny pink Pokémon, that somewhat resembled a human. Blond hair covered its head, tied into a ponytail.
“Smoochum!” It cried, jumping up and down on the spot.
“Please approach the judges,” the voice called. Rebecca and the Smoochum moved to face the judges.
“Here we go,” muttered Sam, “can’t they just battle and get it over and done with?”
“No Sam, the appeals are the best part!” Sarah exclaimed, watching the stadium ground intently. “Wow, that’s one cute Pokémon!”
“Smoochum! Let’s dazzle them with your Psychic attack!” Rebecca yelled.
The Smoochum turned its head and nodded in response, before beginning to perform what looked like a badly-choreographed ballet. The Pokémon twirled and leaped across the floor, its body emitting a hazy purple glow. Finally large purple rings began to emanate from its body, gently floating towards the judges.
“And what a fantastic start this is!” The voice boomed, “Smoochum is doing a fantastic job!”
“Now finish it with a Powder Snow,” Rebecca said.
The Smoochum continued dancing, this time however, causing a gentle snow to fall above the judges heads.
“Fantastic effort by Smoochum, now let’s see the judges scores...”
The portly man held up a large card with the number ‘8.2’ scrawled across it. The female judge held up an ‘7.9’ and Rhett held up a ‘9.4’.
‘Nine-point-four! What an astounding result! This will be hard for our home talent to overcome.”
Up in the stadium, Sam was resting her head on an arm, looking extremely uninterested in the happenings below.
“There’s no way that was worth a nine, this guy is useless. Why did they even bring him here?” She muttered.
Sarah looked shocked.
“How can you say that?” She asked, “I think it was a great performance.”
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s see how this ‘home-grown hero’ goes. She’s up next.” Sam watched as Alesha walked towards the judges, throwing her own pokéball in the air.
A large, creamy fox-like Pokémon burst from the ball. It had nine elegant, long tails. “Niiiine,” the Pokémon yawned, before taking its place in front of the judges.
“Alright Ninetales, start this with a nice Will-O-Wisp!” Alesha called.
The Ninetales sprung into action, leaping and bounding in front of the judges, flaring its nine tails, before opening its mouth and allowing a bright blue orb, followed by a stream of red and purple flames to burst out. The orb danced around in front of the judges, who clapped at the sight.
“Now a Flamethrower, into the sky!”
A burst of bright red flames burst from the Ninetales mouth into the sky, creating a firework effect.
The judges were now on their feet, clapping. That is, all except for Rhett, who looked bored with the performance.
“Now the judge’s scores!” The voice boomed across the stadium.
The portly man held up a ‘9.0’, as did the woman in the middle. Rhett, however, yawned and held up a ‘7.5’
“Well, it seems the scores are tied! It all comes down to this, the battle! Whoever wins this will be this year’s Contest Winner!”
“Finally!” Sam said, sitting up and finally taking interest in the Contest.
“Let the final round begin!”
Rebecca threw a pokéball, releasing a large, green dragonfly Pokémon. It had red spots dotted on each segment of its body, and large red and white wings.
“Meeegaaaa” the Pokémon cried as it beat his wings and flew into the air.
“Alright, let’s finish this! Let’s go Vespiquen!” Alesha cried.
A large bee-like Pokémon burst out of the pokéball, and flew into the sky. Its body formed the shape of a skirt, covered in black and white stripes. Thin black arms extended from her body. A large red gem sat in the centre of her forehead.
“Vespiquen, Vespi!” she cried.
“Alright, Yanmega start with a bit of Silver Wind!” Rebecca yelled.
Yanmega turned in the sky and began flying towards the Vespiquen, gaining speed as he went. His wings turned silver, and large, glowing crescents flew into the sky, heading towards the Vespiquen.
“Vespiquen, counter with Defend Order!” Alesha yelled.
Vespiquen hovered in mid air, her skirt-like body suddenly turning yellow, and a hive of tiny bees flew out. They formed a black and yellow wall in front of the Pokémon, and the Silver Wind attack was absorbed.
“Amazing! Vespiquen is unfazed by the Silver Wind attack,” the voice thundered across the stadium.
“Alright Vespiquen, Power Gem!” Alesha cried.
Vespiquen moved her hands in front of her body, and a large orange energy ball began to form. Vespiquen lifted her hands, and threw the orb at Yanmega, directly hitting it.
“Yanmega! U-Turn!” Rebecca said.
Yanmega began flying towards Vespiquen, and suddenly disappeared. It reappeared just as it struck the body of the bee Pokémon, veering off to the side, and smashing into the wall of the stadium.
“Yanmega?” Rebecca yelled, confused as to what just happened.
“It looks like that Power Gem crumpled one of Yanmega’s wings, causing it to become off balance,” Sam speculated from the stand. “And it looks like he hit that wall pretty hard. I’m pretty sure Alesha just won the contest.”
Sure enough, she was right. Yanmega did not get back up off the ground; instead it just lay there in a crumpled heap.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the winner of this year’s Contest! Miss Alesha van Hewett!”
The crowd roared as Alesha collected her trophy.
“That was amazing! Sometimes I really wish that I was a trainer, I don’t know why I didn’t pack up and leave home when I was younger” Sam said.
It was true. She had the opportunity to visit Professor Rowan almost seven years ago to get her very first Pokémon. It seemed that fate had other plans; however, as on that particular day her father had gone missing.
He had not been seen since.
This profoundly affected her mother, whose depression had meant she was no longer able to look after her only daughter, and with that Child Service promptly took Sam away from her home, placing her into a foster home until her mother was better.
It took five years of travelling to and from different families and the home for Sam’s mum to overcome her depression, and when she did, Sam moved back in with her on their family farm.
It wasn’t a large farm, just big enough for them to live on and get by off. They kept Mareep, selling electricity to the Hearthome power station, as well as Miltank, selling milk to the Sinnoh Moo-Moo Milk Company. They certainly made enough money for two people to live off.
“Well Sam, why not start your own Pokémon journey now? I mean, sure it’s a little bit late, but I think you should be right to do it under the circumstances,” Sarah said, as the two girls walked down the steps towards the stadiums entrance.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Sam replied, “I think I’ll get Mum to take me to visit him during the holidays in Sandgem.”
“Oh look, the rain’s stopped now. Anyway, there’s no need,” Sarah said, “he’s coming here. I’m pretty sure it’s tomorrow, visiting the Pokémon Centre near the Hearthome Department Store. Why not go then?”
“Well, its pretty short notice isn’t it? I mean, I can’t just pack up and leave home.”
“Why can’t you?” Sarah asked. She stopped, grabbed Sam’s hand and looked into her eyes. “Sam, why can’t you just accept that you deserve this? After everything you’ve been through, you deserve to do something you want to do. Your Mum will be fine, I’m sure, and I can help look after her if she needs looking after. Just do it.”
Sam smiled.
Sarah was right. It was time that she did something for herself.
“Well, I guess I better let Mum know when I get home.”
Sarah squealed, jumping up and down with excitement, before hugging Sam.
“Oh Sam, this is fantastic! Just fantastic! I’m so happy for you!”
Sam laughed, hugging her back and the two left the stadium, heading towards the bus station which was situated about five minutes walk east of where they were. When they arrived, the bus had just pulled over, and they followed the crowd of people onto it.
“Where ‘bouts ya goin?” The bus driver asked.
“Two to Aitkenvell,” Sam replied.
“That’s two dollars each,” the bus driver said, “Thank ye ma’am.”
Sam and Sarah took a seat at the back of the bus, and continued their conversation.
“So I wonder what you’ll get from Rowan,” Sarah pondered. “Oh! A Mareep would be nice, they’re real cute!”
“Sarah, if I wanted a Mareep I could just take on from the farm,” Sam sighed, “remember, we have like thirty of them.”
They sat in silence for the rest of the ride to the Aitkenvell bus station, and upon leaving the bus they took their separate paths. Sarah lived about fifteen minutes away from Sam in the opposite direction.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around...” Sarah smiled, a tear welling up in her eye.
“Yeah... Oh come here!”
Sarah flung herself forward and hugged Sam, squeezing her tightly.
“All the best on your journey Sam.”
She let go, and begun the walk home to the farm. It wasn’t far from the bus stop, usually a five minute walk. As she walked, Sam thought about what she would like as her first Pokémon. Hopefully Professor Rowan would have something tough, something that would make her stand out from the rest of the trainers in Sinnoh.
As she approached the front gate, she could see the front door was open.
That’s odd she thought, Mum always locks the front door at night.
As she approached, she could see the inside of her dimly lit house. A vase had been smashed on the floor, paper fluttered in the hallway.
She stepped inside, peering into the almost darkness.
“H-hello?” she called out into the house.
There was no reply.
She walked forwards, and then entered through the door to her left, which took her to the living room. Again, the contents of the room were scattered on the floor. The red couches in front of the television had been turned over; books from the bookshelf on the back wall littered the floor.
“What the... what the hell has happened here? Mum! Mum! Where are you?” She cried out.
Again, there was no reply.
Sam left the living room, and walked into the next room. The room that belonged to her father.
His office.
“Mum?” she whispered hoarsely.
The office was pitch black. Sam stepped forward into the darkness, carefully tiptoeing to make no noise.
“Ah, I see you have returned, Venom.”
She froze.
--------------------------------
Dun dun duun... anyway critique etc. (May get a few new readers)
-StrayedBullet
