A Tale of Two Rivals

My Concerns About My Other Pokémon

I could not stop thinking about just how contest ready I wanted Masquerain to be before I felt ready to use it. The more I practiced with him, the more I discovered and became familiar with the moves in his arsenal. Masquerain definitely had some excellent moves to offer my skills for any contest. I had quickly figured out that my eyeball pokémon was quite appropriate for contests, just as I had predicted he would be. I just was not very certain that we had that level of togetherness I had always felt safe with for the use of pokémon contests. I just felt it was better to practice until we got it perfected down. Performing with Masquerain would have to wait, anyway. I supposed I could at least map out some possibilities for the time being.

There was also the issue that I had to worry about Vibrava, too. Do not get us wrong, we were getting along just fine and Vibrava was ever eager to prove himself a strong force as a pokémon and a valuable asset to my team. There were, however, a few things I had some reserves about with Vibrava. One of my reserves with it was that Vibrava seemed to want to completely outdo his own teammates. My vibration pokémon seemed to want to work with me alone during those times.

It was not like Vibrava got his kicks by harassing Roselia or Masquerain whenever I tried to get him to work with my other pokémon as a team. My 'tough-guy' pokémon was just not very eager to comply whenever I asked him to try a combination with the others. I just hoped he would finally mellow out a bit over time, or when he finally became a Flygon. After all, some pokémon matured after they evolved.

Another concern I had with Vibrava was that he would not be much help in contest appeals, if at all. The truth of it was that I had been so obsessed with the possibility of adding a Flygon to my team, but I had plans to use him for contest battles only. I had never even tried to think of ways to perform in the appeals round with Vibrava. I also was completely unfamiliar with ways of showing off Sandstorm and Steel Wing attacks as a very appealing combination. I had always gone with flashy, elegant, dazzling showcase appeals. I never even once relied on displays of strength on the appeal stage in contests. I knew the idea worked for some of the coordinators I had seen in my contest career, but that just never even once fit in with my appeals style. I showcased my pokémon's strength in battles and battles alone.

My growing pokémon team was getting greater by the minute for sure, but all I could really do at the time was just keep on spamming the appeals round of each contest I entered with Petal Dances and Magical Leaf attacks with Roselia as the only one by my side until I felt more comfortable entering all of them in the contests. Although it had always work for me in the contest hall and continued to do so, that did not mean I did not crave to do something different, especially after I saw the variety of pokémon I had faced in the contest I just lost a few hours ago.

A Dustox that could use Poison Sting and Whirlwind attacks? The part of both attacks where it used a Rainbow for accenting its attacks might have been completely fake, but I just could not deny that its own true attack moves were impressive enough on their own, and it was even a little different at that. That Jessica, or Jessie, or whatever that thief woman's real name was could have had a semblance of an actual chance at winning the contest if she had shown better sportsmanship.

I especially could not forget Grace and her Medicham who had managed to topple my Roselia with moves like Confusion to send our Petal Dance right back at Roselia, an Ice Punch directed at the ground it used to send even Roselia's strongest attack of Solar Beam back at her, and even an exceedingly decent High Jump Kick to finish up our defeat. Grace's Medicham could even use Meditate to dodge our attacks. It had even used its own Confusion on itself when it would have almost been in danger of hitting the ground hard to lessen their received damage during their battle against May and her Beautifly.

Yes, there was also the matter of May's Beautifly and their Silver Wind attack...

When I thought of their Silver Wind, my mind landed right back on Masquerain and how he had already known Silver Wind for a long time since I caught him. The very thought of entering a contest with Masquerain and his Silver Wind at my side had done a lot to excite me beyond all measure when I had first started training and practicing with him on his use of Silver Wind.

Oh dear Arceus, the breathtaking combinations I could pull off with Masquerain when he would be ready to compete by my side brought tremendous excitement to my veins.

My last three contest wins had been far too easy, and there had been no fun whatsoever in them because there was no real challenge to them. That day in Fallarbor Town, however, was very different from before all of that. I managed to feel the rush which reminded me why I had always loved coordinating and pokémon contests. Most of all, however, it renewed and resurrected the passion I always felt on stage along with the want for the same kind of diversity in my own moves and appeals as the stuff from the Fallarbor Contest. I really wanted to use Masquerain's Silver Wind.