In the Spotlight 2: Jade's Sinnoh Journey

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Jade felt her heart begin to race as the officials running the Grand Festival approached her. Despite the nerves, she willed herself to smile at them. The one in front, a man, smiled back at her.

"Hello, Miss Jade." he greeted. "How are you holding up?"

"Uh... as well as anyone could be." she responded with a shrug. "Though it doesn't hurt as much as it did when it first happened."

"Well that's good. Glad that you're already on the way to recovery. But I'm sure you know why we're here."

Jade nodded. "I know that everyone here has to look out for everyone's safety and wellbeing... but if there's a way to work around this injury I have and still compete, I'd like to do that."

"You seem to be quite determined to continue despite what happened." another, a woman this time, noted. "May we ask why?"

"There's someone that's really important to me here that I wanna face in a battle." Jade explained. "She's one of the reasons why I set off to have a journey in the first place. I made a promise that I would give this back to her as soon as I made a fulfilling journey for myself."

She pulled out the old contest ribbon Destiny had given her.

"She's right here in this building waiting for me to get better." Jade continued. "This won't be a fulfilling journey for me if it ends here. The only way I wanna leave the Grand Festival before the contest is if someone beats me fair and square."

There was some silence for a moment. The man in front eventually spoke up once again.

"How about this, we see how you do in your next battle in the semi-finals. If everything seems fine we'll let you continue. But as soon as someone senses trouble, we'll stop the match and pull you out. Does that sound fair?"

Jade nodded. She supposed that was the best she could get out of them. Still... there was still a chance which meant that she had to take it.

"Thank you."

"Please don't overdo it, Contestant Jade." the man advised. "And good luck."

As the group of chairmen left the room, Niko, Rhyme, and Destiny rushed in just a few moments later.

"Well? What did they say?" Rhyme asked.

"They said that they'll see how I do in this next round." Jade answered. "If nothing goes wrong, they'll let me continue. But if the injury proves too much, then they'll pull me out."

"Well at least they're giving you a chance." Niko noted. "In Showcases, if you got an injury like that, the only option given to you is to bow out. Otherwise you're at an unfair advantage against the other competitors."

Jade then looked over at Destiny. "I'm doing the best I can to meet you at the finals. You'll be there right?"

Destiny looked at her young friend in shock. At first she wondered where this type of determination came from. Still continuing on with a task even with an injury. But then a distant memory came to mind. 

Jade, just starting out on her job at the DayCare had sprained her wrists. Still she did as much as she could to help out the pokemon there. It took Leafeon and a few of the other staff members to convince her to take it easy. And even then she still tried to do something.

No, this determined part of Jade was always a part of her. Maybe it was just a bit more obvious now that she had grown a bit from all the traveling she's done.

Destiny nodded. "Don't worry. I'll be there." she assured her.

Jade nodded with a smile.

Rhyme let out a sigh of relief. At least something good came out of all of this mess, but soon a realization came to mind. "Well, if you're still going to compete that means you'll have to get up to battle pretty soon. Do you think that you're ready for that?"

"Yeah. If I'm being honest, anything sounds better than just sitting around." Jade admitted. "I'm ready to continue on with the semi-finals." she then looked over to Mismagius. "Do you think you can help me out keeping weight off my leg?"

"Magius." the ghost type nodded with no hesitation.

"Thanks. So whenever you can just use Psychic to keep my leg up and whenever you're tired, just let me lean on you. That should keep most of the weight off."

........

Rhyme and Niko watched the semi-finals play out in the backstage area. And here they thought the Grand Festival couldn't be anymore stressful. The only saving grace to this was they allowed Jade to have her match after Destiny's. Maybe so she could give her leg as much of a break as she could get. Still, that doesn't mean that they weren't worried about their friend. As soon as Jade appeared on screen, at least part of their minds was spent just hoping that the wound didn't get worse all of a sudden.

As the battles continued, Jade's plan with Mismagius supporting her either with Psychic or just allowing her to lean on her seemed to be working. There didn't seem to be any sign that the discomfort or pain shown.

If Niko was being honest with herself, she was very impressed that Jade quickly found a way to go on. Perhaps in the calm moments, Niko can't help but think back to the timid and quiet girl she befriended back at school.

But that was years ago. They were older now and far away from the environment that made them suppress their true potential.

The girl on the screen wasn't a new version of Jade. It was the same girl when she was allowed to be anything she wanted.

The two matches soon ended, leaving Jade and Destiny the only ones left. The result that Niko and Rhyme had expected at this point.  Though Rhyme would be lying if she said that this was a guaranteed result after everything that happened.

Though it seemed that Jade's plan had worked so maybe, as long as it kept working, then there shouldn't have to be worry her leg.

But either way, this last battle was going to be intense.

Jade

Leafeon (Ability: Leaf Guard) Leaf Blade, Magical Leaf, Nature Power, Grass Whistle

Delcatty (Ability: Cute Charm) Attract, Shadow Ball, Blizzard, Hyper Voice

Mismagius (Ability: Levitate) Psychic, Perish Song, Hex, Confuse Ray

Umbreon (Ability: Synchronize) Dark Pulse, Swift, Shadow Ball, Iron Tail

Garchomp (Ability: Sand Veil) Dragon Claw, Power Gem, Bulldoze, Stone Edge

Lopunny (Ability: Run Away) Double Kick, Quick Attack, Bounce, Drain Punch

Rhyme

Prinplup (Ability: Torrent) Bubble Beam, Peck, Metal Claw, Pound

Plusle (Ability: Plus) Helping Hand, Nuzzle, Quick Attack, Spark

Minun (Ability: Minus) Helping Hand, Nuzzle, Quick Attack, Spark