บท 73: C073 - Start of the Semifinals
AN: Some of you liked when I described the battles, so I'll do two or three chapters of that. But not the whole tournament, obviously. It'll start next chapter! Hope some of you are looking forward to that.
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With a long kiss for good luck, Pete left Jasmine at the contestant area and walked toward the waiting Whitney near the stage.
"Petey! Thank you so much for coming!" The pinkette gushed as she ran to him for a hug.
"How are you? Jasmine and Courtney just complained that you don't come over often enough. Your two Farigiraf have enough juice to jump over," Pete spoke with the gym leader still in his arms.
"Ah! Well, you know. Jasmine is going to be a gym leader soon, right? The last time we had a mock battle near your lake, her Steelix and Gabite easily won against my Miltank and Farigiraf. It was very humbling, but instead of crying, I wanted to simply get stronger! I caught a Teddiursa, an Aipom, and a Jigglypuff, and I've been training them as hard as I can. I'll beat her in a 6v6 instead where I have several pokemon who can deal with that monster of a Steelix," Whitney offered with a bright grin.
Pete didn't want to crush her mood and tell that she'd have even less of a chance in a 6v6, but he did offer some insights to her training if she came over to his farm. He'd even arrange for Jasmine to not be there so the gym leader could have a better chance. It was a little crazy how strong Jasmine's pokemon were compared to an 'established and successful' gym leader, all things considered.
"I admire your grit and integrity, but... you know you could have joined and simply trained with her, right? Not only because your Wigglytuff could benefit greatly from the many fairy pokemon living with me. We have so many pokemon on the farm doing mock battles and training with games, I think there's about six different battlefields and three sports arenas by now," Pete suggested.
"And how will I ever beat her if I do what she does but start later?"
"Alright, guess you got a point. Just know you'll have the option, always. Who's our third host today? Or is it just us?" Pete looked around but except the odd pokemon, a camera crew, and some staff.
"Oohhh, I got a friend to help! She told me you two knew each other," Whitney explained with a cheerful smile.
Suddenly, some sweat ran down Pete's back. Someone was glaring at him. He stiffly turned around and saw sky-blue hair.
'Shit! I managed to not cross her path in over 700 days! Ugh, so unlucky,' Pete cursed in his mind.
"Egghead Pete, so nice to meet you again," Clair greeted with a wide smile.
"Yeah, crazy how it took so long for us to meet again," Pete answered with a forced pleased look.
"Yeah, crazy indeed. Last time Elm met with Lance at your farm you mysteriously went out camping just minutes before and nobody could reach you~ Never even told anyone I would come along," Clair continued while her smile was starting to show her sharp canines.
"There were some wild pokemon close to hatching, and I wanted to be there when it happened," Pete explained sheepishly before resigning himself to his fate. "Haaa... I'm guessing you followed my advice? This outfit certainly works much better for you."
Instead of the usual 'wetsuit' that had a vertical cutoff at just below her butt which flattened and widened it, she wore a wetsuit that ended around halfway of her thighs. The suit was still glued to her person and showed less skin in total, but it looked much better with the turteneck that exposed plenty of shoulder and collarbone.
Much of it was hidden by her tattered cloak, but by pressing both hands on her hips, she showed her outfit to Pete just the same.
Oh, and she wore much nicer boots that didn't end in two thick rings just below her knee. These new ones had a slightly higher heel, but it somehow still looked like practical boots for explorers.
"Hmph! Don't think I'm unreasonable enough to hold a grudge for so long. You can make it all up by showing me that grass type dragon you got on your farm after this tournament is over. Lance and I didn't find him on your farm last time," Clair countered with narrowed eyes.
"Flapple doesn't like new people. The little guy likely hid in a tree and pretended to be a big berry," Pete pondered out loud.
"Huh, but didn't Flapple swoop down in front of me the first time I arrived at the farm after your Hoenn trip to eat a berry out of my hand?" Whitney asked with a tilted head.
"Haha, is that so? Maybe he just found you cute," Pete awkwardly offered as one girl's eyes' gleamed in mischief, while the others' gleamed in irritation.
"I have an offer for you later if you're interested," Clair said through gritted teeth and walked off to the panel they would sit later on. There, she released a Dratini and had it lie its head on her lap for petting and bonding.
"Ugh, did you have to do that? Clearly, she already held a grudge before," Pete asked in exasperation.
"I dunno what you mean," Whitney giggled before walking off to sit next to Clair.
A few hours later, the mostly boring tournament came into its heated phase: the semi-finals. Jasmine had easily reached it with one hit KO's and would fight a young man called Bugsy next. Pete naturally identified him as the next Azalea bug gym leader and not just because he had a Scyther and a Beedrill fighting for him.
The other two were well-known trainers, too, but Pete had to dig a little deeper to find out who they were. After all their roles in the pokemon universe weren't in Johto.
Well, one was easy because Iris, a dragon gym leader in Opelucid City in Unova and future champion, had a Fraxure and a Hydreigon out. The young, tanned girl was constantly looking over to Clair in challenge. Her pokemon were strong, there was no doubt. But she would clearly lose if these two were her strongest pokemon. Must be a weird dragon trainer thing if her stares were an actual challenge.
The other trainer looked to be the clear favorite, just matchup wise. After all, Hydreigon with the dark/dragon typing was doubly weak to fairy moves. And, that other trainer would become a fairy gym leader in Kalos' Laverre City. Valerie, the girl who wanted to become a pokemon, wasn't yet wearing a truly eccentric winged kimono like she did in the games.
Instead, she wore a flowery sundress with a deep cut on the side that exposed plenty of her long legs with every step. The dress also had a few ribbons that matched one of her pokemon, a Sylveon. Pete knew his weren't the only ones in existence, so he nodded in satisfaction. The Eevee was likely taught a fairy move by Valerie's second pokemon, a Mawile.
'Wasn't she a model or fashion designer in the games? If that dress is any indication, she certainly has the talent for both,' Pete thought after Valerie walked past the panel like she was on a catwalk.
"Are you about to ask that girl out? You're in luck. Whenever you're not looking, that Valerie brat keeps giving you the bedroom eyes. Just like you just did," Clair quipped from the side. It wasn't the first time she tried to rile him up today.
"What's it to you? That girl Iris is looking at you just as much."
"Hmph, that's because Iris is from Blackthorn City same as me and the little troublemaker is probably still angry that we 'offloaded' her to her second uncle Drayden in Unova after her father's death. Her dream became beating Lance and I so resoundingly that she can kick the both of us out of our home so that we can taste our own medicine. Poor girl has to train under one of the wisest, most experienced dragon trainers in the world, boohoo," Clair explained while wiping away a fake tear.
"Huh, is that Hydreigon a loan from him then? It's remarkably well trained and behaved for both a dark and dragon pokemon," Pete asked now that he had Clair talking about something other than his flaws and faults.
"Nope, that was her father's pokemon. It had just evolved before he died, so it's still young. When Drayden came to take Iris away, Iris' declaration to beat Lance and I made it acknowledge her as her trainer," Clair explained, leaving out that Hydreigon had even bonded with its old trainer's daughter that same day and the young girl unlocked one of the strongest initial dragon affinities the gym leader had ever seen. She even unlocked her dark affinity as well.
"Well, it's going to be hard for her to reach the finals, still. She was truly unlucky to find one of the only fairy trainers that have attended in the semis," Pete mused.
"Yeah, you really did us dragon trainers a solid by showing off all those fairy moves and pokemon," Clair said while giving him a stink eye.
Pete coughed awkwardly before saying, "Hey, I made it so you have actually challenging battles, no?"
"You two are too funny," Whitney mumbled with a big grin. Both Pete and Clair snapped their heads to her.
"Hey hey, continue! It was getting fun~"
"Nope. It's time for my Jasmine to reach the finals," Pete quickly said as he saw the announcement on the giant TV. In the distance, he saw Jasmine walking toward the battlefield entrance in the center of the gym.
Whitney wasn't done with her mischief yet and whisper-giggled so only Pete could hear, "Too bad~"
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