Finding Truth Amongst The Lies

Chapter 20: Serena's POV

The next morning I excused myself to go practice a little while. After some practice, I decided that I would enter Roisel in the Appeal's round and then give Shinx a chance at the battle rounds since I still hadn't come up with a good appeal round routine for him and we didn't have the time to perfect one anyways.

After visiting Nurse Joy and getting Roisel and Shinx all healed up I followed Theresa and her family to the festival. Her Dad (who owned a special herb store in town) was running a booth during the festival but he left it closed so that he could watch his daughter's performance. Theresa and I waved our goodbyes to her family and then went to the back of the stage where the other six contestants were already lined up.

There were no backstage cameras for a contest this small, so to watch the other performers I had to sneak around the side of the stage and watch from the shadows. Theresa's appeal round was so cute I could hardly keep from squealing. Her Piplup used a combination of Bubble to fill the stage with little bubbles and then Bide to make its body glow beautifully. Finally, it waddled around the stage using Peck to pop the bubbles that it could reach. I nearly died of cuteness overload when one of the bubbles was just barely out of Piplup's reach and it had to jump three times before finally popping it with a triumphant peep.

Since I was the last to sign up I gave my performance last as well. I was surprised when I got to the stage and didn't feel nervous in the slightest when I saw the small crowd of happy townsfolk. Bree and her parents waved encouragingly to me at the front of the audience and I couldn't help but wave back before I released Roisel using the same crystal flower seal as my first contest. Roisel performed her appeal round performance perfectly. She even threw in an extra twist in her backflip as she flipped into my extended hands and I lifted her up high at the end of the routine. Everyone applauded and I looked down at the judges in interest.

Nurse Joy was there of course, but the other two judges I didn't recognize. One of them was an elderly man in a white suit who seemed to be overflowing with happiness after watching the performances. The other was an elegant woman who appeared in her mid-forties with beautiful midnight blue hair styled in a bob much like Vanessa's. I curtsied and left the stage since the judges hadn't been announcing their scores for the other contestants.

Theresa practically jumped into my arms when the judges announced that both of us had made it into the top four. I wrapped my arms around her small frame and spun her around, laughing excitedly along with her before she left to face her first opponent. To my surprise, when Theresa faced off against the young boy who had sent out a Turtwig, she chose a pokemon that I had researched before but had never seen in person. It was an adorable fighting type called Riolu and I immediately fell in love with its cute yet fierce persona. Her battle lasted the full five minutes and I was impressed with the grace and charm that her Riolu battled with.

My first battle was against an old woman affectionately known as Grandma Millie. She was battling with a cute little Minun and I was excited to have it battle against my Shinx. An electric battle sounded exciting to watch and I hoped I would be able to give Shinx the proper commands to unlock his potential.

The battle began and Grandma Millie bowed slightly towards me, which I immediately returned with a lower bow in respect. She chuckled happily before nodding at her little pokemon.

"Alright, Dearie, let's start with Trump Card," Grandma Millie said in a relaxed tone. 

Her Minun hopped to the left then the right cutely and then to my surprise playing cards suddenly materialized behind its body and began flying through the air towards Shinx. I had never seen a move like this before, but I knew that Shinx didn't have fantastic defense so I needed to do something to avoid taking damage at all costs.