"Well," said Z, "if its a battle, I'm worried. You beat me quite easily before, back during our gym battle. It took a while to get rid of all of that ice and water that was left over in the arena. I think Tsurara would have loved it though. She's always saying how its too warm in the town and how I need to buy a more powerful set of air conditioners to keep the gym cooled down more."
"I hardly won," Eira scoffed, raising an eyebrow at Z in hopes that he was just being modest. "You probably only needed to hit Shimmer once more to knock it out with no hopes of return and Walrein wouldn't have been able to keep up with Sparky if she had been more used to skating across ice. If we battled again, I'm sure it would be a much harder battle to finish than our last one. If anything, with our new Pokemon, it would be much more of a hard fight to plan for."
"It was a close fight," said Z, "If I hadn't forced you to switch pokemon, shimmer would have dominated the next battle with its speed and underwater fighting tactics. To be honest, the only pokemon I have that is a sure fire counter to your team is Volt. and he has his own shortcomings that can cause him to lose. Plus you have a legendary on your side this time. How do I beat that?"
"Ele doesn't quite listen to me, even when I summon her to battle for me," Eira admitted sheepishly, knowing she could trust Z with this even if she wouldn't quite tell everyone the same thing. "Ele is an Articuno after all, which makes her one of the friendlier of the legendary Pokemon, but not one of the easier ones to control. I can't use Ele's power whenever I may want to, only when I absolutely need her power can I summon her and she actually work with me. If our lives hadn't been on the line in the fight with Lugia, I doubt she would have worked with any of us."
"Even still," said Z, "you have the types, water, ice, psychic, normal, flying, bug, dragon, and a shapeshifter, on your side. You could probably counter whatever I decided to throw at you with relative ease. You already know most of my pokemon and have seen them in action as well. I only have one that you haven't seen, but I don't think she'd be of much help against your team."
"That only depends on her typing really," Eira countered with a shrug, looking over to what Pokemon he had out for her to see in that moment. "You have quite the variety in Pokemon and all of them are skilled battlers, so it would be hard to guess who you would choose in any given round. On the other hand, I only have a few skilled battlers at my disposal, so it is quite clear who I would pick in any given situation with such limited choices."
"Well, I am a gymleader," said Z, "I have to be a strong fighter to be able to challenge the competitors that want to try and win the badge. One of my goals is to have pokemon that represent every one of the types. That way I can be prepared for a diverse amount of battlers and I can make it hard for people to beat me and take the badge of my gym. Most of them aren't the best in contests now, though."
"You still manage to pull of quite the show every time I see you perform though," Eira complimented him, gesturing to his Pokemon. "You've done a wonderful job training them to not only be powerful, but to also do their moves in the best ways possible. The diversity and power of your team is one of its greatest strengths and allows you to pull off performances that I would have no hopes of doing with my current team strictly because my Pokemon don't have the power to do what your's do."
"Maleko?" Maya questioned a little startled and turning to see the boy. He was dress very simply as a Snivy and suddenly she felt incredibly ridiculous. Even as she turned her dress rang out loudly from the chains and baubles on it. Well no one would be able to misplace her. Her presence would be announced if she so much as shook her head.
She looked back at the girl and then to Maleko again.
"I'm glad you showed up. I was worried that I would be down a partner," Maya laughed nervously, very serious about her worry. Heaven forbid she went out there... and she had no partner. She might have collapsed on stage and sounded like a wind chime being knocked out of the air. [/font]
"Thank you," said Z, "though part of it comes from my ability to bond with them to a level that I can actually learn to understand the things that they say to me. That helps us communicate and plan out strategies according to their strengths and weaknesses, and it means I can get information from other pokemon if my own pokemon will act as translators for me."
Nicole gave the small girl who was now cowering into herself a small smile, trying to make her less scared and more willing to talk to her. "You're Astina right? It's nice to meet you, I'm Nicole. Perhaps we should move to the side and start discussing what we are going to do? We don't need to stand on the stage to plan, I don't think. Plus this stage is just a little crowded am I right?" She tried, making her tone into a very casual, conversational one. The little girl seemed too formal in a way, and, if they were to work together in anyway, she felt the girl would need to let that go, even for a little bit. Sure, it seemed that she wasn't much older than the girl in front of her, but she somehow got the vibe that this girl was raised in a very formal environment, where she had not. In all honesty, she was confused as to why Akane chose this combination, but she was willing to go with it. After all, who questioned the Celosian queen on matters of her contest hall?
"I guess normal was never supposed to be a word for me." - Nicole
Prasha walked into the contest hall extremely late, because of Akane's guards thought he was a warrior due to his choice of costume. A suit of Samurai armor polished and the same color of Steel his beloved Aggron. The armor shined in the glint of the candles and two decorative katana sheathed on his back. He noticed that the trainers had already chosen their partners and he walked over to them. Prasha took his ultra ball from his hip and released Steel. He roared in a cheerful greeting and stood by Prasha towering over everyone.
"What have I missed my Lady? I am sorry for my late timing." Prasha bowed and steel followed. "It will not happen again."
”I know, I have yet to remove the guard who probably stopped you. I would have though he had learned his lesson after his encounter with Zandrophin.” She shook her head.
”Alas I’m sorry if you wish to participate for you need a partner for the first round. Please wait until we can find you one. It shouldn’t take long, and we haven’t even started officially yet. I hope you don’t mind. You and your partner will be going last to make up for lost time. Fair?”
She gestured for him to move to the back of the stage. There was a small side room he would be directed to wait in until the contest began. Surely another contestant would show themselves today. His costume, though not really pokemon themed, had a certain quality of a steel pokemon she liked, even though she knew, if it were real, it would just be a paper suit.
"Sanity is only an idea made real, to make those who are boring feel better." -Akane
"Yes that seems fair, my Lady. " Prasha waved and spied the back room. He moved to the back of the stage and took his helmet off to catch his breath. Steel tried to quietly follow Prasha but his huge body made large thuds on the stage as he tried to enter the side room with Prasha. He had to admit he was feeling jittery, this was his first contest and he really had no contest pokemon other that Zeal who had insisted she stay in the warmth of his new Inn. Prasha rolled his eyes and took a seat adjusting his armor to make it comfortable to sit down.
"Y-Yes, I am Astina and these are my familiars Ruby and Quartz," Astina introduced, bowing slightly to the elder girl along with her Pokemon in greeting. She was unsure of how to interact with someone so clearly not like her. Was she to be formal like she was speaking to an elder since this woman was clearly older than her or would this Nicole prefer to talk in more relaxed tones? Astina bit her lip slightly, uneasy when dealing with humans that were not in her tribe. "Will you explain what we are to do here? I was asked to join, but I do not know what is going on."