[CLOSED] Fall Festival [Nicole] [Z] [Tsubame] [Mariko]

Kaname was nervous, a sight rarely seen by even Tsubame. Patting his head, Tsubame did his best to reassure him, though he was a little unsettled as well. Tsubame looked around at the competition and noticed the blonde man who had entered the clinic and that had introduced himself to him once before. ’The business man is here?!’ He sighed and muttered to Kaname.

”No use worrying now Kaname, the business man’ll probably take the win.” He shook his head and continued looking around. Nicole? The girl who was to go first. Do I know her? I think she was the girl with that Maya chic. He noticed another blonde man-blonde? No. his hair was silvery white. He recognized him, but hadn’t met him. Looking around seeing if he knew anyone else, he noticed Mariko.

”Mariko! Mariko!” Jogging up to her like a pet dog, he stopped suddenly and smiled his happiness at seeing her. ”You’re here! And competing? Good luck to you, you deserve it.” he smiled. He remained wary of Zandrophin, the man with the abra who was standing nearby.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Eira called when the hall was full of visitors to watch the contest, her voice echoing around the smooth ice hall as she spoke. "Welcome to the first annual Fall Festival! We are here today tosee how these skilled trainers have decided to try to awe us with their Pokemon! Please give a warm welcome to the first competitor tonight, Miss Nicole!"

Eira sat back to enjoy the show, hoping to see a beautiful performance that captured the season that they were here to celebrate.

Eira applauded along with the audience as she stood, making a mental note of how many points she believed Nicole managed to score With her performance. "That was quite a lovely performances, Miss Nicole, and wonderful way to start the contest off. I don't know about everyone else but your performance certainly reminded me of the beauties of winter that we are going to be seeing very shortly. I assure you that, while your performance was short, it was wonderful enough to give you a decent score for this first round. Thank you."

After a small how towards Nicole, Eira sat back down to announce the next competitor. "Ladies and gentlemen! We have quite the treat with this next competitor. Participating once again in our fair town, we have the gym leader of the Starfort gym, Z!"

Z walked forward with Tsurara at his side.  He had a smile on and knew exactly what he wanted to do for this contest.  With a flourish, he threw off his cloak, causing Tsurara to float up above the center of the stage.

"Tsurara," said Z, "lets make this a beautiful show!"

Tsurara let out a musical cry and raised her hands to the air, causing clouds to gather and hail to fall.  She then called forth an Ominous Wind, causing a purple twister the form that sucked all of the hail into a vortex.  Next she began to use an ice beam to form an ice sculpture, channeling some of the ominous wind into it to smooth the edges, giving it a crystalline sheen like a sparkling diamond.  Once she was finished, she fired a shadow ball into the vortex of spinning hailstones, causing an explosion that shattered the hail and left sparkling diamond dust surrounding a crystalline sculpture of a milotic.

With a bow, Z collected his cloak and walked off stage.

Zandrophin stepped down from Eira's box and walked onto the stage. He heard the murmurings of the crowd, along with the shifting in seats. It must've been confusing to many of them. He sighed before entering his confident entertainer persona, his voice echoing around the hall.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention for just a few moments. I have an announcement."

The murmuring stopped; he had their attention, now. After a short pause, he continued with his usual show of gestures, ensuring to look in the general direction of everyone in the hall,

"I regret to inform you all that I will not be performing in this contest. This decision was made after a long discussion with my team. I know many of you in attendance here today are familiar with my style of performance. After determining that I could not deliver a spectacle of my usual caliber, I decided to remove myself from the list. Some of you may think this cowardly, or that I'm to prideful. Both of these would be true. I take great pride and enjoyment out of producing fantastic routines, and I am always afraid of disappointing my audience."

He took a moment to attempt to lighten the somber mood he'd placed on the hall,

"I will remain here to observe the competitors, comment on their performances, and, perhaps with Lady Eira's permission, assist her in the judging process. To the competitors in this contest, you can relax a bit...you no longer have to compete against me."

A few people laughed...which was good enough for him. He paused again, clearing his throat before he concluded,

"I am deeply sorry if this has come as an inconvenience to anyone. If any of you came here to see me perform, I can assure you, there will be many other opportunities to see me put my money where my mouth is. I say good luck to those competing, and thank you all for your time. Please, enjoy the contest; cheer these people on...I have no doubts they've all worked hard to impress you all. Give them a round."

Applause echoed around the hall. Zandrophin turned to where the competitors were seated, bowed and, in a wide sweeping motion towards the stage, spoke to all of them mentally,

"Take the stage, my friends...it's all yours. Bona fortuna."

With that, he Teleported off the stage in a flash, reappearing in Eira's box...eagerly awaiting the next performance.

Tsubame scratched his head seconds before his legs trudged onto the stage, Kaname visibly fretting behind him. His plan was rushed, but he had already decided they were going to perform. Tsubame inhaled and realized his throat was shot, but he was in front of the queen so he refused to just back down; especially with Miss Mariko and Zandrophin, both veteran coordinators, watching. He waited for the silence, maybe even waiting a little longer before he used a dangerous tactic, one that could arouse suspicion from any guards nearby.

”Kaname, use dark pulse!”

Suddenly, the room was filled with a darkness that seeped eerily from Kaname’s gaped mouth and open claws, the dark aura moved like a shadow that had somehow been brought to life. Kaname’s eyes glowed purple, not unlike the dark flame-like appendages that rose and fell from the edges of the shadows as it creept towards the audience. The move doubtfully would have aroused suspicion from nay guards, hence why nobody trusted dark types.

Finally in the darkness, Tsubame felt the freedom to think as worried chirps and squeaks from the unnerved audience were all but drowned out as he thought. Finally, I can see clearly. After forming a plan, he noticed the darkness had already begun fading. He whispered at a decibel only a pokemon could hear. ’Now, move to the back. You will make use of double team.’ and was answered by a reassuring whoosh.

When the darkness had finally dissipated, Tsubame watched as the audience looked around, both nervously and angrily. But they stopped as an icy wind blew up from all of the aisle ways. Kaname was using his double team to move around the room, focusing exquisitely glimmering particles within misty cloud clusters towards the stage; icy wind. Finally after a few seconds, a mound of ice and snow appeared on stage. It wasn’t anything to look at, at least not until Kaname charged at it. Combined with his speed and the cyan glowing aura bursting from his clawed fists, the sneasel looked like a comet of blues from navy to white. When the ice punch connected with the pathetic lump, an explosion of iridescent fractal particles and clouds of mist and the dissipating blue aura shot towards Tsubame who had already covered his face, but was standing in the middle of the stage, directly in front of the exploded lump. The icy shards pelted his clothes enough to hurt, and maybe even cut through in some places, but he was otherwise just fine.

They had finished, Kaname in a position of exhaustion, quickly recovered enough to run to Tsubame, who had already begun talking to everyone present; primarily, the queen.

”My queen,” he began riding the adrenaline high of the performance, ”I hope you found our performance acceptable. I, your humble subject Tsubame, and my friend Kaname both thank you for your time.” Starting to shake from the adrenaline wearing off he hoped Eira would review him quickly.