Pokemon: The Queen of Kalos

A Fashionable Favor!

Glad all the technical issues have been resolved! Anyways, our heroes have finally arrived in Laverre City, and a certain Fairy-Type gym leader has a favor to ask...

~

"Ah, Laverre City!" Zenith exclaimed as they stepped into the city. "It's been a while since I was last here..."

"Aw man, I'm so excited about my gym battle!" Ash added. "One step closer to the Kalos League!"

Serena stepped closer to him. "I'm excited, too, Ash! I wanna meet Valerie- she's the Gym Leader as well as a famous fashion designer!"

Ash seemed to only pay half attention to what she was saying as he pressed forward, opening the door to the building the second it was within his reach, just to be stopped by a woman in the lobby. "I'm here for my gym match!" He exclaimed.

"Ah, I'm sorry sir, but Valerie has a show today, so we aren't accepting any battle challenges." She stated the message with practiced mechanism, but her eyes seemed to temporarily widen as she saw the rest of the group enter; namely, when she realized who was with him. "Miss Zenith! Perfect timing!" She bowed at her, then Ash. "I apologize; I had no idea you were with the Kalos Queen. Come now, Miss Zenith, Valerie mentioned you'd be in town and she had a favor to ask..."

The woman stepped from behind the desk, and Zenith stepped up with a smile. "Of course, anything for my old friend! Ash, everybody, I'll be back soon!"

As she walked away, Ash noticed a boy with green hair who was staring after them. "No way... is that the Champion? Why does Valerie need her for, I just wanted to battle to earn my gym badge...?"

"You're here for a gym badge, too?" Ash asked him. When he looked up at the black-haired boy and nodded enthusiastically, he held out a hand to shake. "I'm Ash!"

"And I'm Sawyer."

Ash nearly laughed once they shook. "That's Zenith's last name."

"Us too!" The other three quadruplets added behind him.

"Yeah, the Sawyer entourage has graced my friends and I with their divine presence," he chuckled. "Nice to meet you, Sawyer."

The greenet looked about ready to faint. "I might be dreaming..."

Meanwhile, the woman was leading Zenith to a door down the hall. "See, Miss Zenith, Valerie has a big performance and one of her models called out sick. She's been fretting over it for a while, but as soon as she heard you were coming to town, was adamant about adding you in her place." She opened the door to a luxurious dressing room. "As the guest of honor, of course," she added.

"Sure!" Zenith answered. "I'd love to, haven't gotten to do shows in a while anyway. What's she got for me to wear?"

The woman seemed to internally cringe as she lead Zenith to the selection of outfits on the rack, browsing through them until she picked out the correct one. "It's a little more... extravagant than your normal performance attire; I hope you don't mind."

Zenith looked the set of clothes over. The first thing that caught her eye was the extremely puffy sleeves and skirt of the dress, which were angel white with the faintest traces of cotton candy pink and baby blue. The body was a clean blue, and looked quite tight compared to the rest of it. The sleeves were long and covered by the excessive fluff, and upon further examination, the skirt was more like a cape- much longer in the back with much less fluff in the front, as well as being shorter.

It looked like it was specifically made to look like a Mega Altaria, with a blue tail-like extension on the back and multiple ribbons of the same color for her hair, though much of it would likely get lost in the feather-soft veil.

"It's certainly... different than my usual taste, but I'd do anything for a friend! Besides, I'm sure Cumulus would love a chance in the spotlight..."

The woman and bowed and left the room, allowing Zenith a few moments to eye the clothes, sigh, and get to work changing. She put on the dress and the blue tights that were tucked inside it, not minding the intense fluff as much as she would have expected, adjusting the tail until it looked natural. She fixed her face up with makeup to match an Altaria's pale cheeks and accent the violet contacts she put in, and even slipped on some ballet-esque shoes decorated in fine white feathers donned in a single cerulean gem each.

Last was her hair, which she put in a high ponytail before slipping the veil over it, only bits of fringe poking out. She grabbed a few ribbons to tie them up in purposeful overhangs and tied the rest to the fluff of the veil, where they fell down in gentle, cascading swoops.

All that was left was to release Gardevoir and hand her her Pokeball with a trusting, unspoken nod, before she went over to the PC she found in the corner of the room and searched through her Pokemon until she found the Luxury Ball that held her (admittedly quite pompous) Altaria and spruced her up with a few extra ribbons.

"I'm all ready," she announced as she slid gracefully across the floor and opened the door.

~

Ash nervously paced the lobby floor. He and Sawyer had battled with two Pokemon each, but the raven-haired boy had come out on top. "I wonder where she is... it's been almost twenty minutes, what do you think she's doing!?"

Sawyer shook his head at the worried boy. "From what you've said about her, she can pretty clearly take care of herself. She does battles and performances for a living anyways, so I doubt she's in any trouble."

Serena didn't say anything as she leaned against the wall, having denied Bonnie insisting she come shopping with Shadow, Pine, Red, and Crystal, though they agreed to come back before the show started since all the girls wanted to see it. However, Clemont have a nod. "He's right, Ash. I'm sure Zenith will be back in a little while. We should probably go reserve seats at the show before it gets too crowded."

He sighed, but followed the timid blond anyway, Serena and Sawyer following after them. "You're right..." Ash perked up. "Maybe she's already there and wants to surprise us! His pace increased.

~

As it turns out, she was not waiting in the audience for them, but they had gotten pretty good seats near the front with a perfect view, and the others returned from shopping.

"Relax, Ash!" Crystal told the boy. "I'm sure she's just gone off to help the models get ready or something. She and Valerie worked in the industry with one another for a pretty long time and still meet up every now and then for lunch."

"That's Zenith for you," he sighed. "Always running off to help others."

The platinum blonde looked ready to response, but the lights suddenly dimmed, and the spotlights on the stage appeared, all pointing towards the center. A familiar voice jovially called over the murmurs of the crowd. "Dazzling Gleam!"

A large explosion of blinding sparkles flashed across the audience, and when it cleared enough for people to see, two near-identical figures were standing in the spotlight. One was dressed as a Mega Altaria, and the other was a Mega Altaria.

"Now, Moonblast, then Air Cutter!" A pink, sparkling moon appeared over them, before it was blown into silver glitter by a blast of air. As the air once again cleared, the duo was finally visible to the audience.

Zenith gave them a cheeky smile from her costume, waving with her Altaria doing the same.

"Hey everybody, welcome one and all! I'm Zenith, your Champion and Kalos Queen, and I'm here to announce Lady Valerie's newest collection!" The crowd went crazy, people taking pictures and cameras flashing left and right.

~

Lady Valerie's collection has begun, and Ash made a new friend/rival in Sawyer! Kind of ironic he shares a name with the last name of our quadruplet heroes, but now it's time to sit back and enjoy the show!

Goodbye for now and stay safe,

Zenith