Okay, so this is a few days late. I was hoping to get this in by Friday, but this past week was busy for me. Not a lot of times did I have the space and freedom to write on with this chapter and its contents, and when I did it was hard to correctly word everything, and if I wasn't writing I was trying to draw what I imagined first. I've already put those on my Twitter with the dresses I decided to use as a base and add on to, with Manaphy and the lake trio of legendaries being inspiration for a lot of the changes. Link to those drawings will be at the end. Just copy/paste into a search bar. Should hopefully work.

God (I don't believe in you but that's just a side note to remind the fucker (pardon my American)), I really struggled trying to write down the Pokemon moves and executing them into words to match what I saw in my head. I don't feel like I got it right and interesting enough, and that's a problem because of how important those things are to the series. I want to be able to make the imagery vivid and clear enough, but I can't think of an out-there way of doing it. Maybe you like how I wrote it this chapter; that's good and if so leads me in the right direction to keep this up. But if I'm not sticking it, do tell me so I can try it differently. The next chapter will be a fight, so hopefully there I can express the moves and the scenes I write clearly enough for you.

I'm not going to be writing another chapter for any of the stories this week. I will be focusing on my writing, but I'm going to heavily work on notes and explanations for something else in the mean time, then work on a chapter or two for Betrayed. I'm putting into question my update schedule with the amount of stories I'm telling myself to work on around my actual life, so I might fall into a new plan come August and September. I'll stick to my current rotation idea this summer to keep trying it out, but if it becomes bleh then I'll be doing this differently. But I'm not giving up on these stories. I'll try my damned hardest to get these done. I'm too deep to tell myself to back out now. That wouldn't be good.

So enough about that. Welcome to a new chapter, full of jumps in perspectives and I'll confess now: unless a Pokemon has telepathy, they're not getting English dialogue. It's the only language I can write, but to keep that divide as the other media for the series has, I'll leave most Pokemon speaking in their native tongue with characters around to translate and respond for your viewing pleasure. That's just an aesthetic thing I wanted to make clear before we push on ahead, since this chapter does have a Pokemon's perspective to follow for a bit. Thought it would be best to get that out now.

Anyways, do enjoy the chapter. Review if you have anything to judge or share. Please do. Thank you for following me through this.

Text and it's meaning:

Regular text.

"How people speak."

Telepathy (since personal thoughts haven't been too common yet)

Pokemon moves

May Maple. Red was familiar with her face. Same went for Dawn Berlitz. They were both prominent and important, two of the five – maybe four if the rumors were true – that played their roles in the early stages of the abduction cases. Red had kept tabs on them that the news and social media kept on them. Knowing other people's travel habits was a pass time for him. He'd hope one day they would come to visit, out of the curiosity that plagued so many other trainers and travelers. He hadn't expected to stand beside them for a tournament, though. It would do.

The stadiums built for the grandiose tournament were something, the two of them were. Only one was in current use, and he could see the stands below him fill to the brim with contestants of the tourney and all the family, friends and other spectators that came for the show. A few familiar noteworthy trainers from the news and several Pokemon out to accompany them, but sadly enough none of the noteworthy people he had hoped to see. Maybe one of the few would be there. He would have to ask Lance or Goodshow for access to the contestant list to find if any of the people he knew were participating. More private knowledge was harder to track and remember but it didn't mean he couldn't dig for it.

He could feel his wife's hand curl around his as their bipedal Pokemon flanked either side of them. Her thumb tapped against his knuckles and drew his attention away from the stands below to the woman by his side. Brown eyes met his red as she inched closer to where he sat and pressed shoulder to shoulder and leaned against him. Her head fell atop his shoulder, and feeling obliged he followed suit and lowered his head atop hers.

The young Kanto professor smiled and guided her thumb across his knuckles. "They really did make this place spectacular, didn't they?" she spoke to him softly. "I thought they would use the old tournament stadiums they built here a few years back."

"They did."

The couple turned their head together to face the Unovan champion sitting in the row behind them. A press box sat atop the stadium seating, and the champions and professors and 'special guests' that Red assumed he was a part of had collected together in it. The only few missing heads from their crowd were the two contestant performers and the Sinnoh professor, the latter of which the champion from said region was trying to call up in the corner of their box.

Alder crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat with an Accelgor in the seat beside him. "Clay helped renovate the old tournament grounds to accommodate for a larger audience and these reserved seats. The League's been wanting to modify this place for larger events like this. Heck, this was their first choice to hold it, it just needed to be more prepared for the amount of people it would attract."

The gym leader, Clay, here in Driftveil? Red asked the fiery haired man. I wasn't aware he participated in construction work.

The champion grunted with a nod. "He and Lenora are more invested in excavation, but since this was taking place on the docks connected to his city, his compliance and assistance was all but expected."

"What has he been up to recently?" Yellow chimed in to the conversation. "I was hoping to see him yesterday when we arrived and I didn't get anything out of that other than a, 'He'll be here tomorrow.' And now, it's that tomorrow and I still haven't seen him. Will he be announcing the pre-game shows?"

"No, he will be announcing the starting of the battles, once the real tournament is about to being," Lance answered from the other side of the row from Alder. "Some activity was going on in the Desert Resort around the old ruins and Clay opted to help Elesa with whatever it was. We still haven't heard back from them yet, so if Clay comes in at the last second riding a truck unannounced don't be surprised. It's something he would do."

"That's something I would do," Alder added, turning to look at the Kanto-Johto champion across from him.

"Compromise: that's something both of you would do." The two champions turned to the professor from Kalos holding a hand out to the Unovan champion. "You're both so full of energy that I would believe you to give Clay the idea to ride on top of a truck and him crazy enough to go through with it."

"No, I meant like the bed of the truck—" Lance tried to explain while waving his hands before a booming laugh from Alder cut him short.

"AHAHAHA, that's a good one, Sycamore. I would do something like that wouldn't I?"

The Kanto man shook his head back to the tournament field. "Never mind."

"Speaking of missing faces," Kukui injected, turning to the Sinnoh champion glaring down at her phone, "any word on where Rowan is or when he'll get here? Or should I worry about age finally getting to him?"

"I'll take offence to that for him," Alder stated, pointing a finger at the Alolan professor.

Cynthia sighed her head lower and threw acknowledging that out the window. "Still no word from the old man. He won't answer his phone so either he's asleep or he's ignoring me, both of which I can assume as plausible."

"Aw, come on, Cynthia," Steven spoke up behind her. "Professor Rowan wouldn't ignore you. He probably has his phone turned off so he can practice his lines for the opening of Maple and Berltiz's performance." The professor and champion of Alola and Sinnoh respectively turned over their shoulders to the Hoenn native beside them, along with the other heads in the room. The champion of Hoenn blinked at them all before his expression faulted with a sweat drop. "Am I really the only one who remembers him telling us that?"

Wallace stroked his chin beside his champion companion. "I can't recall him ever telling us that."

"It was yesterday. It was exactly yesterday that he told us that."

Alder leaned forward, falling his chin into an open hand staring ahead and blank. "Did he really say that yesterday?"

"It was among the things we went over before we all passed out." Steven threw up a hand and looked across the room. "Am I really the only one here who remembers this happening?"

I wasn't there, so I feel like I can be exempt from this. Red looked around at the other champions and professors deep in their own thoughts. Same goes for Yellow. I thought the announcer last night said Clay would be announcing these introductions. And aren't you supposed to be in the performance with May and Dawn, Wallace? The mountain trainer turned his attention to the water specialist and coordinating icon still tapping away at his chin. At the mention of his name, Wallace paused his attempt at recollection and looked to the masked man with a smile and a hand on his chest.

"I will be performing after them. The girls will be having a shared performance first." A soft popping echoed through the speakers as the field in the center of the stadium rumbled, drawing attention of the crowd and the champions alike. "And it looks like they will be going up soon."

"And then after you, it's me," Lance stated as he stood from his seat to better see the transforming field.

You'll be half of the champions' battle before the tournament gets to start, correct? Red turned over his shoulder to look at the champion of his region. The orange haired man nodded.

"Correct."

The masked man turned his attention through the rest of the room. And who is supposed to be your opponent?

"Well, that depends." The dragon master looked down to the mountain fighter. "Are you up for it?"

Professor Rowan cleared his throat for a moment, holding the microphone down by his stomach before stepping through the entry way onto the field as it parted in the middle. He raised the mic to his mouth, stopping in the referee square in his way and looked up to the stands of the stadium filled with people in their anticipation. He smiles and raised his hand to the crowd, and started his speech.

"Good morning, everyone!" The crowd responded back to him with cheers and good mornings echoing off the walls around them, and keeping the smile on his face, he continued as the sound died down. "Thank you for being patient with us. We're nearing the time of noon, and we thought it best not to keep you waiting any longer. As promised, we have a few shows to give you before the tournament begins, and to start we bring you a wonderful performance from the queens of Hoenn and Sinnoh themselves!" Another wave of cheers broke through as a platform rose from the opening in the field, bringing out of it a stage, and atop it two young women.

May Maple was dressed in a uniform very reminiscent of her earlier days of Pokemon coordination, but with the years passed was redesigned in many ways to hold up her title as the Queen of Hoenn. The dress that had draped over her legs had increased in layers, with a shorter layer above stopping below her knees, and a third layer atop that falling only a foot or so away from her waist. Speaking of which, the band that wrapped around her waist, holding together the fabric that covered her legs, had received a minor touch up as well, with the golden band design starting at the center of her waist branching further across and around.

The colors, too, had changed, with the one peach color of the waistband turned a sky blue, and the drapes of fabric a bright yellow, ruby red, and deep purple for the shortest, middle, and longest cloth respectively.

Her top piece had only stretched the length of her sleeves, still leaving her midriff exposed. The sleeves had meet all the way to the wrist before pushing further, covering only the back of her hands and connecting to rings around each of her fingers to keep it in place. Its colors matched the waistband of her dress, the same light blue lined with gold and the design on her chest changed. The heart had been kept intact on the center of her chest, while the random lines of gold that used to stem from the base of the heart closing in as two ovals, both with their own two lines stemming from the top of them and connecting to small dots, all colored the same gold.

The head dress was gone, the long fabric like a cape no longer holding down her hair. The caramel hair now free from control was still let down, flowing past her shoulder blades with two short bangs hanging out the side of her face, and atop it all was a tiara. The framing was a smooth silver, decorated in an upward climb as it reached the center of her forehead, and there sat a blue gem with yellow dots hovering over a bigger red circle.

By her side stood Dawn Berlitz, still rising in the ranks of the Sinnoh popularity poll but by all means as equally famous as her Hoenn friend. And to accommodate her status, she too went through a change to her looks and attire. Her dress had the same layering affect her partner had on hers, but May's dress was more thin compared to the more royal nature of Dawn's. The lower half of the bluenette's dress was round, and large out from her actual physique, with two spear shaped cloths laying over the layered drapes of her dress. Around her midsection wrapped blue cloth where a gold top shot out of all the way to her collarbone. Two ribbons decorated her stomach, and a third sat atop her chest. The shoulders to her dress puffed up like balls, cutting small on her bicep and leaving most of what was left of her arm to cover to the white gloves stripped in pink, passing high over her elbow but not enough to meet her sleeves.

The setup of her hair was simple, most of it pulled back in a ponytail that originated closer to the back of her head than nearing her neck, and held in place by a yellow bun, with only two bangs of hair caressing either side of her face. She didn't wear a headpiece as her friend did, but the dress alone attributed the look of royalty she needed.

The two young women stood posed, upright with Dawn's hands folded in front of her chest and May's grasped behind her back. Their heads down and their eyes closed, the women stayed unmoved by the cheering and whistling of the crowd. Only as the sound subsided did the two girls raise their heads and open their eyes to the crowd. Their passive looks quickly turned upright into smiles before they both flicked a hand out forward, a Pokeball enlarging in their grasps, and then threw them up into the sky.

"Blaziken, take the stage!"

"Typhlosion, spotlight!"

The two containers snapped open, blue light jolting into the sky before striking back down on the stage below and taking form before the crowds. The first broke away in sparkling dust to reveal a humanoid Pokemon, decked in orange, yellow and brown feathers, with a beak for a mouth and claws for fingers and toes, with fire erupting from his wrists. From the other blot of light came a beefier Pokemon, standing short on all fours showing her blue back to the world and barring her teeth as flames came bursting from the back of her neck. Blaziken and Typhlosion let out cries in their tongue, lighting their flames ablaze in harmony and ready as their trainers caught the balls coming back down.

Dawn stepped forward, holding a hand outward and elegantly to her volcano Pokemon. "Typhlosion," her voice rang out through the stadium in a calm tone, "start of the show with Sunny Day."

The quadruped fire type growled as her back arched and rose her to only her hind legs, before her head snapped back and shot to the sky a ball of light. The shining orb rose and rose, high above the crowd, before erupting and shining down a brighter light than the sun was moments ago.

May took a foot forward, smiling like a madwoman despite her attire and thrusting a hand forward to her starter Pokemon. "Blaziken, help prepare the show with Bulk Up!"

The bipedal Pokemon stepped ahead of his companion before falling into a wide stance and sounding off with a huff of a breath. The fire from his wrists glowed brighter with the red aura that began encasing the blaze Pokemon from head to toe under the shining lights of the sun.

Dawn smiled to the crowd, barring her teeth and closing her eyes with a look of glee. "Ready, everyone?" The Sinnoh native turned her hand over, pointing a finger to her fire type. "Typhlosion, encase the stage with Smokescreen!"

The shorter Pokemon complied, shooting from her mouth plumes of black smoke. Blaziken stood unmoving as his body glowed red and heated up from the sun and his own fire. Second by second the smoke thickened, the volcano Pokemon releasing it not letting up. Until…

"Alright, Blaziken, let's get to crafting! Agility around the stage!"

Blaziken, glowing red within the smoke to give its position away to the crowd, ceased his Bulk Up, and in doing so disappeared in the black clouds building in the center of the stadium. But only for a moment, before a white flash outlined him in the smoke and shot forward out of it and to the stadium wall. His feet and claw dug into the stone wall, the light around his body brighter outside of the dark clouds building around his partner. Slowly he let go of the wall, leaving his feet dug into the stone wall as he turned to face down the length of the stadium wall. A foot rose from the wall, moving out with the length and digging itself back in as both legs crouched and his muscles tensed before in a dash of light the tall Pokemon was running along the wall.

"Keep up the smoke, Typhlosion!" The fire Pokemon within the darkness did as instructed, black clouds plumping out from her mouth and building into the rest as Blaziken kept up its pace around the stage.

I must say, for a contest show, it's not as… Lucario waved his hand in a circular motion as he thought over his words. Beautiful as I thought it would be.

Especially with the move pool they've shown, Gardevoir chimed in. Bulk Up and Sunny Day are beauty based moves, but their current show of Agility and Smokescreen consist of coolness and smarts. It's quite strange.

Yellow sighed, tapping a finger against her chin as the two Pokemon beside her conversed. She was the only one in the press box that could hear them due to the connection, so their commentary was lost on the champions and professors around her conversing with each other and their own Pokemon.

"They still have a few moves to show," the Kanto professor added in a whisper to the psychic and the aura user. "What they intend this show to be to the audience relies entirely on the rest of their move sets. I can't really tell what they're doing now."

"I think they're making a tower." The Satoshi professor jumped in her seat and turned her head to the Hoenn champion sitting a few seat behind her. Gardevoir clung to her arm, sending out small pules of her energy to calm the woman down from the surprise as others in the room looked to the silver haired man.

"You caught that too?" the Sinnoh beauty asked from her seat, leaning into the Kalos champion beside her.

"Yes but I'm not sure what they're trying to make of it yet. Could be a number of things but they still need to round it out first."

"I'm not sure I follow," Alder brought up from his seat with Accelgor using his trainer as one.

The stone maniac of a trainer pointed to the show, to the black smoke building in the center. "Why else would Blaziken be using Agility like that?"

The champion wasn't wrong in his point; Blaziken was speeding around the inside of the stadium field walls, around the stage and his companion and trainer, and the black smoke piling from them. But his passive move wasn't just for show, if speeding around like a bullet was becoming an indication. As he ran, the smoke followed, and it was becoming clearer to the crowd what was happening as the smoke swirled and rose higher on the stage.

"What do you think they're trying to make?" Yellow pondered aloud to the surrounding people.

"Unova has its own memorial tower," Alder chipped in. "They could be trying to replicate it as an homage if I were to bet."

"Would you be up for losing a bet?" The regional champion turned to face the visitor from Kalos, looking over Cynthia beside her to meet Alder's gaze.

The fiery haired champion crossed his arms as he fell back in his chair. "What do you think they're making, then?"

Diantha blinked, leaning herself forward in her seat and wrapping an arm around the blond beauty of Sinnoh to keep her from falling off and she looked to the performance again. "They're making a Typhlosion."

"Alright, Typhlosion, that's enough!" Dawn announced, hoping in the thick swirling smoke her Pokemon could still hear and did as instructed to stop and sit still.

"Does it look tall enough to you, Dawn?" May asked her companion, a hand hovering over her eyes as she looked up to the towering smoke cloud closing in on itself at the top. The bluenette joined her partner giving the towering smoke a look of her own.

"I think so, May," the Sinnoh coordinator replied to her friend.

"Then it's time for phase two! Blaziken, dart through the smoke with Blaze Kick!"

The tall flaming chicken nodded, taking an immediate stop in his movements without dialing down the glow of Agility before his legs lit up in flames and he rocketed off the wall. He shot feet first into the cone of smoke, ripping open a hole where he entered and another where he made his exit to stick a landing on the wall face again, leaving behind a trail of white, black and fire.

Then he took off again, running along the wall before darting off and through the clouds to create another tunnel through it. And he did it again. And again. And again. And soon the pyramid shaped cloud of black smoke was left with tunnels throughout, slowly closing smaller as the Smokescreen tried to resettle. But May wasn't going to let that happen.

"Now, Blaziken, to the center!" the Hoenn queen called out, and her Pokemon followed, losing the white light and fire that surrounded it as it jumped into the high pile of smoke. The Sinnoh lady stepped forward from her friend, placing both of her hands on her chest with a smile widening across her face.

"Alright, you two. It's time to blow everyone away! Typhlosion, Seismic Eruption!"

"Blaziken, Burning Bright Uppercut!"

And the stadium shook. The crowd clung to their chairs and tried to bury themselves in their seat as everything around them sook, and nothing kept them from screaming – some in astonishment and others in scare – as the cone of black smoke peeking into the sky shot plumes of fire into the air, and in the center of it all a figure cloaked in white and red with a fist held high.

"A Typhlosion," Cynthia commented, resting her chin on her hands and curling her lips in a smile. "The volcano Pokemon. Clever word play." She turned her head and comment to the girl by her side who smiled back and leaned against the Sinnoh champion.

"Thanks babe," the Kalos actress responded, leaning into the other champion to let their noses brush past one another, ignoring Alder's comment about grace and not having a gambling addiction.

"Okay, while that's cute, that's terrifying." Kukui took the finger he had pointed to the blond champions beside him and gestured it to the erupting work of fire, smoke and a bipedal bird in the center of the stadium for his second adjective. "They replicated a scenario of an erupting volcano without having to build anything other than hype and expectations. I think most of those moves classified as Beauty moves under contest standards, but they made something that probably would have fit under a Tough performance. I'm going to have to congratulate my cousins for this show."

Lucario turned head over his shoulder to look at the Alolan professor who didn't meet his own eyes or take any notice of the aura user's eyes on him. How is everyone his cousin?

"Honestly, cous', I don't know how you're going to follow this up—where's Wallace?" The professor/champion had crossed his arms and turned around in his seat to talk with the champ-in-training only to find the seat vacant of its previous owner.

Steven turned over to the professor turning his head every which way to find the man in question before he piped up. "Oh he left a while ago to get ready for his performance. He didn't want to distract us while he left from what the ladies were doing."

"Really?" The champion nodded to Kukui. "I thought we would have noticed that."

"Did he leave before or after we placed bets on the battle?" Cynthia chimed in, leaning her head back to look at the two men conversing.

"Before. Snuck out with them. And no one is betting on the match, Cynthia. We're not doing this again."

Sycamore leaned over the seat before him. "Is there a betting pool I should be aware of?"

Cynthia was the only other head in the room to look over to the Kalos professor and sound off in unison with a, "No," before Yellow decided to pick up the rest. "You're off researching and making a difference all the time. You don't need to know about a betting pool, which we promised to stop using after the last time, and bother wasting your money." The heads turned again to face the blond fighter of Sinnoh, who after the long silence that came with their gazes got her to notice what was going on and sink into her seat with a pout.

"It's not my fault I have bad luck," she grumbled under all the gazes, and sunk even lower as her partner lowered her head onto of the Sinnoh champion's.

"We don't blame you for trying," Diantha sung softly to the other woman, who in turn kept her only reply to be an inaudible grumble without any sort of other reaction.

Steven broke the glaring silence of everyone else with a clap and a jump from his seat, shooting a hand to the windows before them. "Wallace is up."

The group of professors and champions looked back to the stadium center, to the crowd of people watching with them, and to the lava and stone and smoke spiraling in the air.

Rowan grimaced a smile, raising a hand to block his eyes as the wind picked up around him and the three coordinators by his side. The Sinnoh professor turned his head only enough to face the Hoenn legend of a man, staring up at his Milotic and the elemental Twister it was creating. "It's nice to know after all these years you still like making a grand entrance!" he yelled over the winds. "Nothing would be the same if you didn't try to make your first step count as twenty!"

"Well you can't blow anyone away without a strong enough current, much less everyone!" Wallace yelled back in a smile, stepping forward to join the young women in the middle. "My sincerest apologies for turning you ladies down for a triple threat of a performance, but I couldn't help myself from tagging along in the end!"

"It was just about your turn anyways!" May responded for the two. "Though I thought you would have waited until ours was fully done to make your appearance!" The brunette turned her attention to the source of the elemental whirlwind above, spotting her Blaziken and Dawn's Typhlosion crouched beside Wallace's Milotic.

"I couldn't call it a triple threat if we weren't all here together, now could I? I think there is still more for both of you to do now with me in the mix, so let's give the audience one hell of an ending!"

"Always aiming for a grandiose finale, aren't you Wallace?" Dawn questioned with a smirk.

"Only because I don't want the battle up next to outdo me!" The water specialist gave a wide smile of his own. "Are you two ready for 'Release a Pokemon'?"

"That move?!" Both ladies gave the older gentleman a wide-eyed look. "You sure it will work well with water and fire together?"

"I haven't made a Luxury Ball out of it yet! Better now than never if we keep Typhlosion in the center!" Wallace kept his eyes on Dawn looking for her approval and commitment until she nodded her head in vigor. "Alright then! May, I can trust you and Blaziken to get Typhlosion in there?"

"You can count on us!" May took a lunge with her foot forward, raising a fist out to her Pokemon. "Guys, it's time for a catch and release! Blaziken, we're gonna need you to get Typhlosion inside that storm! You up?!"

Blaziken looked back to his trainer, nodded to her words over the storm before hopping over Milotic to the other fire starter and grabbing them tight.

Dawn cut in before either could disappear from view. "Typhlosion, we're gonna need more smoke in that storm, so throw in as much as you can!"

The two Pokemon nodded towards their trainers and looked to the tender Pokemon beside them. Milotic nodded, holding the end of her tail to the Pokemon and allowing Blaziken to climb on before filing them into the hurricane of desolation. Blaziken kept a tight grip on his partner, diving head first through the swirling ring of smoke and navigating around on stones with loose footing and Agility to boot. Typhlosion kept her head down for the ride, spewing smoke from her mouth and leaving it to pile up in the thickness of flames, stone and smoke already in the air.

Wallace took a step forward, extending an open hand to his Pokemon on the torn stage. "Now, Milotic, add in your own mix of Dragon Pulse and Hydro Pump!"

The water serpent let out a ring in her language and tongue, generating before her mouth a dark green ball of power before releasing it in a vicious beam of energy alongside the Twister above. Just as violently as it was shot, the Dragon Pulse was pulled into the spiral mess, taking and keeping its form as Milotic kept up the beam for many more seconds. When she stopped the attack, Miloticonly took a second to breathe before forming a light blue ball of energy in front of her mouth and releasing a strong stream of water on the opposite side of the Twister, only for the Hydro Pump to follow the fate of the Dragon Pulse.

Despite the added moves to their surroundings, Blaziken kept up his performance in keeping himself and his partner unharmed by the spiraling storm encasing them. Typhlosion coughed out the last smoke she could, shaking her nose with a growl to show she could produce no more under the conditions, and left the two Pokemon holding on to one another and a boulder until they were ready otherwise.

Wallace shared a look with the two coordinators by his side, nodding with them as they decided it was time. He turned back to his Pokemon, shooting his arm to the sky. "Now, Milotic, send the storm flying high!"

Milotic did just that, letting out a shill in its tongue and pushing the Twister with the control she had upwards, surpassing the height of the stadium seats and then some. The two fiery friends inside could feel the rise even with the strong winds around them. The two nodded to each other, releasing their holds on the other allowing Blaziken to jump to another rock and give Typhlosion her space to work.

Neither Pokemon could hear the screams of their trainers below, but the two were familiar enough with the move and what their own roles in the finale were. The bipedal of the two took higher in the spiral of elements, glowing white as he boosted himself higher and faster from his orange glowing friend. Nearing the top, Blaziken took an angled stance on the last rock he could reach, took one last look to his friend below popping the air around her and in a dash of white light took off with distance away from the Twister mesh of attacks.

And turned in midair to watch the explosion of colors.

Typhlosion put out one last move of Eruption and destroyed the move they had been building up in a spectacle of various colors and shapes. The wind and smoke plumed out in various directions, the rocks blew apart to pebbles and dust, and the Dragon-, Water-, and Fire-type moves mixed together and fizzled out in their own small fireworks of explosions. And in the center of the expanding mix of excitement hovered Typhlosion, smoke rolling off her body as her roar with the attack died in her throat.

Then they both fell.

Blaziken spun his body about so he was diving head first back down to the trainers of the performance. He trusted his enough to have a plan for delivering them in a soft landing. Typhlosion, however, did look worse for wear, taking a slower belly dive than the Hoenn fire starter. Milotic could probably catch them with another Twister but that would be very risky and would directly damage the two fire types without all the other moves they had to negate it just then with the special move performance. That could end the performance poorly—

Blaziken blinked at the sight of a Dragonite shooting up – he didn't see where from – into the sky before diverting its course and aiming itself for the two falling Pokemon. A Dragonite, here in the Unova region? It's more likely than you think. But to be this far south of Dragonspiral Tower? Blaziken knew of what other trainers were around, and he knew which had befriended a Dragonite. So he spun his body around turning upright to land more graciously on Dragonite's back, but instead found himself in the clutched of a Charizard coming from the other direction.

Blaziken could see Dragonite catch Typhlosion on his back instead of going for him, which was fine all on its own, but the Charizard was less expected. His trainer mentioned all the Pokemon the dual-region champion but he thought the man's Charizard wasn't around. The only reason Blaziken didn't fight back was that the fire dragon carrying him swooped back around and dipped to the three coordinators, his trainer included, and kicked up some dust before dropping Blaziken a safe distance down.

May ran up beside him, and Dawn to her Typhlosion with Milotic slithering back to Wallace on her own accord, but Dragonite and Charizard kept themselves airborne. The dragon Pokemon gave a snide comment in his tongue about bird trying to fly with no wings that Blaziken bristled at, and in return the Charizard made a comment of his own regarding the size of Dragonite's wings compared to the rest of his body. The dragon type snarled in unison with the fire/flying dragon, but the latter had a smirk to go with it, and made another comment on how close to a pulp he would leave the former in if he couldn't keep up in the fight.

Blaziken followed Charizard with his eyes, confused as to why two Pokemon of the same trainer would speak with such hostility to one another, until the Dragonite didn't follow him to the end of the field, and Charizard landed beside a man who was clearly not the dragon tamer of Kanto. Blaziken's head snapped in the other direction, watching Dragonite land in front of the dragon trainer, decked in his giant blue cloak no doubt covering the rest of his imperial uniform as the champion. And the bipedal Pokemon's head snapped back to the Charizard landing in front of a different man, dressed in white shoes, blue jeans, a red and white short-sleeved jacket, a black long-sleeve beneath it, fingerless gloves of the same color, and a thin white mask that only showed the untamed raven hair and red eyes of the man behind it. And around his shoulders lied a pink feline of a Pokemon wiggling against his neck as though it was trying to fall asleep.

That wasn't someone he had formerly met, and with the attitude of his Charizard and the uncomfortable air around him, not someone he was ecstatic to meet. The fire dragon let out a roar of flames to the sky, greatly overshadowing Dragonite's regular war cry. It was almost uncomfortable to think that the Charizard might fare batter in a fight, but not seeing said Pokemon match the ferocity of his opponent was enticing some worry in the flaming bird.

That worry only increased as Charizard upped its game with a hefty flap of his wings and the fire of his tail flaring higher than his head. Blaziken took an arm around his trainer and pulled her away from the stage with the other coordinators as it sunk back into the ground without them, and closed as the field for battles took the land once again. The crowds above were roaring for a fight, deafening any other noise reaching Blaziken's ears; he could barely hear the woman beside her try to get a response from her starter Pokemon. He kept his eyes over on the masked man staring ahead to the Kanto based champion across the stadium from him, with his Pokemon joining him in the staring contest.

Then the mask turned to face Blaziken and the noised stopped.

Not time, not feeling. Just the sound.

You don't have to worry about me. The feathers on his arms and legs stood up and his wrists threatened to flare as a voiced echoed around him. I hold no ill intent towards you or your trainer. I am no threat to you. But I would like to get to know you and your friends more. I have praise to share for that performance, and a few simple questions for your trainer and her friend regarding…Well, hopefully they'll be okay with it. Even if it is touchy. The man's head turned back to forward, eyes still trained on the fire Hoenn starter and glistening under his mask. It's been a few years since the broadcasts. It shouldn't be too hard to talk about now.

The screaming stadium came roaring back in his ears before he had time to respond in any way, and he flinched at just how loud it all was. His trainer worried over him more, placing herself practically below his hunched over form as his mind processed the words given to him. The blaze Pokemon turned his blue eyes to the field once again, to the two dragon-esque Pokemon and their trainers staring down the other, and to the man he hadn't learned the name of standing oh so plainly but oh so threateningly.

Blaziken didn't trust the man with red eyes.

Known Pokemon:

Lucario. Trainer: Red. Male.

Gardevoir. Trainer: Yellow. Female.

Blaziken. Trainer: May. Male.

Typhlosion. Trainer: Dawn. Female.

Milotic. Trainer: Wallace. Female.

Charizard. Trainer: Red. Male.

Dragonite. Trainer: Lance. Male.

Dress artwork in sketch form and reference will be newest tweet. won't let me post the whole link on here so I'll give the account name for you to look up instead: at PhantosOfHorror (also I can't put in an at symbol. What are these restrictions?)