The Greatest - Mariah King

Chapter 1

Travelling the Sinnoh region to become the next Top Coordinator was 16 year old Mariah King. Mariah was the daughter of former Sinnoh champion, Leonidas King, and of the current 3-time Sinnoh Grand Festival Top Coordinator, Lila King. Not only that, but her older siblings were quite successful, too. Mariah's older sister, Julianna, had won the previous year's Grand Festival, making her a Top Coordinator as well while Mariah's older brother, Jackson, had already earned his 8 mandatory gym badges to compete in the upcoming Sinnoh League.

Mariah had already won 4 of the 5 mandatory contest ribbons necessary to be eligible to compete in the Grand Festival: the Celestic Ribbon, the Hearthome Ribbon, Floaroma Ribbon and the Solaceon Ribbon. Her last stop was at the Wallace Cup where the man himself, Wallace, was one of the judges. The Wallace Cup is known region wide as one of the most prestigious contests and only the best coordinators enter in.

Mariah's team consisted of 2 Pokemon; her egg risen Eevee twins who evolved into brother and sister-like Umbreon and Espeon.

Having recently arrived at the Lake Valor resort, which was basically its own little town, Mariah had signed up to enter in the Wallace Cup in hopes earning her 5th ribbon. She came to the arena with hundreds of other competing coordinators. She got dressed in her dressing room, donning a silky, glittering red, strapless dress with a long train. As she came out of her dressing room and into the main lobby where all the other coordinators sat and stood around, conversing with one another, one coordinator having just returned to the room from being onstage, she directed her attention up to the 50-inch big screen, showing a clear view of the stage and the judges. Mariah realized that everyone else had already had their turn to perform, but her and also, Wallace had still not made his entrance yet. Suddenly, a bell dinged, capturing all the coordinators' attention, everyone looking at the big screen as the hostess, Marian, rose up on the stage on an ascending platform. "Uh-oh! Looks like he's finally arrived, folks!" Marian announced, as the audience went crazy with excitement, "Allow me to introduce our final judge, finally making his entrance! Give it up for the Creator of this contest, the one & only...Wallace!" Marian called, as a suddenly downpour of water crashes down upon the stage, forming a thick waterfall. Slowly, a silver line drew straight down the center of the waterfall, piercing it in half as a bright blue levitating ball peered on through. Patiently, a figure began to form, drawing out from a tail to a head. At last, a silky skinned, beautiful Milotic materialized. "Looooo!" She sang, raising her head to the sky. Along her enormous tail walked a white cap wearing man, revealing himself to be Wallace. "Good afternoon, folks! Thank you for your attendance to the Wallace Cup today!" He said, arms open to the crowd as they responded with screams, cheers and whistles.

"Some entrance....Typical Wallace, I guess." Mariah told herself. "So, without further ado, why don't we get on with the show?" Milotic flicked her tail, sending Wallace flying through the air, the man tucking his limbs in, turning into a ball flying through the air. Athletically, he landed and performed a large frontflip over the podiums, comfortably landing right in his seat next to Nurse Joy, professionally crossing his legs. "And, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Our final judge has arrived! Now, onto our final performance of the Preliminary Stage!" Marian reported, "Last up....Actually, this name should be familiar. She's the daughter of one of Sinnoh's strongest trainers, having been a champion in past years and the daughter of our cuteness reigning 3-time Top Coordinator, Lila King!" "Oh, Lord...." Mariah sighed, as she was being escorted to the stage elevator, irritated by Marian's introduction of her by her parents' titles and success. "Give a round of applause for the owner of the dynamic duo, Umbreon and Espeon, Ms. Mariah King!" Marian finished, as the audience exploded with deafening screams and cheers while Mariah emerged onstage, her red dress flowing behind her as she waved to the excited crowd.

"They want 'em, they'll get 'em. Umbreon, Espeon, you're on! Spotlight!" Mariah decided, hurling the purple and white Capsule Balls up to the sky, the balls snapping open as neon blue, pink outlined strikes of lightning hit the stage, Umbreon and Espeon appearing in the midst of this all, Espeon's bright purple, psychokinetic eyes and Umbreon's dark red eyes glowing beautifully. "There they are! The Eevee Evolution Duo! Aren't they gorgeous?!" Marian cooed. "Espeon and Umbreon, double Swift!" Mariah commanded. "Umbreeeee! Speoooon!" The two of them nodded, crouching forward before blasting off a storm of golden stars from their tails, flying all across the stage in a flock formation. "Now, follow up with Psychic!" Mariah continued. "Espe!" Espeon grinned, her eyes flashing bright neon blue, concealing each of the Swift stars with the same glow, instantly bringing them to a halt in place. "Whoa! Espeon's powerful psychokinetic powers have the Swift on lock!" Marian noted. "Umbreon, Dark Pulse!" Mariah said. "Breeee!" Umbreon roared, forming a twisting ball of shadows at his nose tip, then firing it off at the frozen stars. Immediately, the Dark Pulse tore on through the wall of the stopped stars, blasting them everywhere; into the ground, to the left, to the right, in the sky. "Zap Cannon and Shadow Ball, to the sky!" Mariah replied. Espeon materialized a massive ball of thunderous powers outside the orb on her head as Umbreon did the same, making a sphere of darkness. The two of them, in sync, threw up their attacks into the air, following after the ascending stars. "Now....lets finish with Morning Sun and Moonlight!" Mariah concluded. Espeon and Umbreon shut their eyes, Umbreon's golden body rings brightly glowing as Espeon's facial orb heavily lit up. Suddenly, the sound of thunder roaming about was heard, causing the audience and the judges to look up. Unbelievably, they witnessed the sun and the moon enlarging in the sky, soon one passing over the other, creating a Solar Eclipse, as the sunlight peaked around the edges of the moon, beaming down directly on Espeon and Umbreon, their entire bodies illuminating with a restoring light. At last, the Shadow Ball and Zap Cannon crashed into the Swift stars, creating a gigantic explosion of fountain-like, raining golden sparkles descending upon the arena while Espeon and Umbreon continued to be showered with sprinkles of restoring light from the eclipse, which donned a solo spotlight-like dome of light upon just the two of them in the dimly lit stadium. After a few seconds, the moon slowly faded away, allowing the sun to take full control of the sky once again, the audience going absolutely insane.

"I'd say that performance was...beyond spectacular, but it's not up to me. Judges?" Marian said, turning to the panel of judges behind her, the crowd intently staring at them, too. "Incredibly remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo said, giving a thumbs up. "Is that all he knows how to say?" People in the crowd asked, irritated by his lack of vocal variety. "That was probably the nest performance I've seen in all my years of contest judging! The magnificent, weather changing ending by using Morning Sun and Moonlight...at the same time!" Mr. Contesta added. "I loved the way Espeon held control of the Swift before Umbreon joined in and them both creating a solar eclipse right before everyone's eyes? Magnificent!" Nurse Joy commented. "That performance...." Wallace began saying, eyes closed, arms crosses while sitting in his chair, then suddenly springing out of his seat, arms wide open, "was beyond words..! Iconic....."

As if on cue, the entire audience exploded with cheers and screams as Wallace gave his review of the performance, Mariah letting out a sigh of relief, as she thought he wouldn't like it. "Espeon, Umbreon, that was awesome!" Mariah said, as they ran over to her, giving her a large hug while wrapping her paws around Mariah's torso. Mariah then made her exit with Espeon and Umbreon offstage as Marian walked to the center of the field. "Now, with our final performance having been done, we will now see which 8 coordinators will be moving on from the Preliminary Stage to the Quarter Final Stage!" She explained, "So, if I could have everybody's attention directed to the big screen!" The audience looked up ahead at the 100-inch jumbo screen, showing 8 blank photos in vivid 3D motion flipping like cards into the frame. All the coordinators on the lobby grew incredibly nervous, especially Mariah. At last, the photos momentarily flashed before Marian said, "Now, the results! Our 8 Quarter Finalists! Kevin! Jordan! Aaliyah! Jocelyn! Roberta! Lillian! Maxwell! And...Mariah!"

"Oh, thank the Lord!" Mariah outburst, falling back into her seat in ultimate relief while clutching her chest. "So, with that being revealed, we'll now get to our Quarter Final match ups!" Marian further spoke, as the pictures then flipped back over and proceeded to rotate in a large 3D circle for a couples seconds, then separating in pairs of 2 on each of the 4 corners of the screen, "And, we have it. We have....Kevin vs. Jordan, Aaliyah vs. Lillian, Roberta vs. Maxwell and Mariah vs. Jocelyn!" "So, I'm facing Jocelyn...I didn't get to see anyone's Preliminary performance, so I wonder what Pokemon she has." Mariah softly spoke, in her head, looking around the room.

Getting on with the show, the first match with Kevin and Jordan commenced, both boys facing off on the battlefield. Within 2 and a half minutes, Kevin had dominated most of the battle with his Dragonite and Charmeleon crushing Jordan's Venusaur and Arcanine until Venusaur regained health via Synthesis and completely owned Dragonite and Charmeleon. Before the time could run out, Venusaur and Arcanine had K.O'ed Dragonite and Charmeleon, sealing the deal with a supercharged Solarbeam and Fire Blast with Kevin having less than a quarter of his points left while Jordan barely had any left at all. In the next match between Aaliyah and Lillian, Aaliyah had total control of the match from start to finish, yet Lillian held her own the entire time, just without gaining control with her Froslass and Electabuzz struggling to keep up with Aaliyah's Crobat and Gallade. At last, the 5-minute time limit ran out with Aaliyah having over half her points left while Lillian had a quarter left. In the third match between Roberta and Maxwell, the battle was precisely 2 minutes long, as Roberta's Togekiss and Gabite pummeled Maxwell's Ambipom and Raichu with a Sky Attack from directly above her fused with Dragon Rush. Finally, it was Mariah's turn, as she & Jocelyn came onstage, on opposing ends of the stage. "Five minutes on the clock. Begin!" Marian said, as Mariah and Jocelyn's photos appeared on opposite sides of the big screen with a full bar of points underneath both photos.