N was finding this entire situation to be a headache.

  It had taken a lot of back and forth, but he and Team Rocket had come to an… agreement of sorts. He wouldn’t go so far as to say that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, not when he already despised everything Team Rocket stood for, but the group had not been wrong in the fact that they shared a common goal in opposing whatever Galactic and Lucian were up to. He didn’t admit it to them, but the way he saw it? If he could get those buffoons to investigate Lucian on their own, then he could get the information he wanted without putting himself or the Shadows at risk. Their ability to escape any situation had already been proven by the fact that they were out wandering around and selling food rather than sitting locked in a jail cell at the moment. There was no way that Lucian would allow anything else if he were to have his way.

  Marowak didn’t seem impressed by that decision, but as much as it hurt him to see the little Fire type sad, this was something of a necessary step when going up an organization as powerful as the League.

  By the time their dealing had completed, night had fallen, and N arranged for a room in the Pokemon Center, one luckily much larger than normal to account for all the traffic coming through Lake Valor at the moment. Lucas slipped in long after the sun had set without a word and fallen asleep quickly, but… the Shadows and Mawile never returned.

  The next day was much the same. He and his Pokemon companions explored the festivities more thoroughly, eventually wandering around the outskirts and into the lakefront to meet some wild Water types, and yet Lucas had run off once more and the Shadows still hadn’t returned with Mawile.

  It got to the point where worry started to consume him, no matter what reassurances Mimikyu and the others tried to give, and the only thing that stopped him from hunting them down and calling the whole thing off was Banette getting their attention in the latter half of the day by playing around in their shadows.

  On their third day on the Valor Lakefront, the contest started.

  The contest hall being used for the Wallace Cup was situated right on the edge of Lake Valor, to the extent that N was almost certain that the land it had been built on hadn’t originally been there. It jutted out into the water, allowing for a ring of walkable area to surround the almost dome like building. The top of the building was missing, for what he could only assume was to give aerial Pokemon some room to maneuver. Giant golden plates surrounded the top of the structure, with smaller purple tinted ones beneath those, and plain steel for the bottom layer with arches cut out around the perimeter for entrances and windows.

  N had managed to snag a seat close to the giant pool in the center of the arena. Marowak sat in his lap, Mimikyu on his right shoulder, doing his best not to be in the way of people sitting behind them, and Rotom had floated up towards the roof, saying something about not wanting the electronics of N’s phone to get wet.

  Lucas was in the seat next to him, not looking very interested in the event, playing around on his Pokedex.

  And the Shadows….

  “Will ya quit worryin’ already?” Mimikyu chided.

  “We haven’t seen them in two days, Mimikyu, I think I’m fully reasonable in worrying at this point.”

  Marowak sniffled in his lap. “What if they just left us….?”

  N could feel Mimikyu’s eye roll. “How many times do I gotta say it ta make ya two relax? They’re undercover. Hangin’ around us after goin’ in disguise would just make it so Wallace or whoever else could link ‘em to us. Ya both saw Banette yesterday! Ya know they’re still around!”

  Understanding that on a logical level didn’t make the sense of unease go away. And even then, “One of them needing to have a proper cover I understand, but why all three of them?”

  “Have ya seen ‘em do anything on their own? With three of ‘em, one could watch ya, one could do stuff… back home, an’ one could travel back ‘n’ forth movin’ messages. An’ yet they don’ do that, do they?”

  That… was a good point. They were three people, but in a sense you could say that they functioned as a single entity. Why was that? He didn’t think he’d get a straight answer out of them if he asked. Was it something fa- Ghetsis had ordered of them? Did they simply think they operated better that way?

  “That’s true… they must be good friends!” Marowak suggested.

  He felt Mimikyu shrug. “Eh, maybe. Speculatin’ can only get ya so far, though.”

  Mimikyu was at least correct in that he needed to relax a bit. Being a bundle of nerves here of all places would only bring eyes on him, and he didn’t need that. Instead, he took a look around the crowd.

  The stadium was packed, so there was much to look at.

  Large portions of the crowd were wearing white hats identical to Wallace’s making their adoration for the man obvious.

  Off in the distance he could see James in a new alolan style shirt, which confirmed in his mind that “Jesselina” would be making an appearance.

  On the other side of the arena, a yellow tail caught his attention. Pikachu was sitting on top of Ash’s head, with Brock by their side.

  Why were they here? Ash obviously wasn’t participating if he was in the crowd.

  For someone else maybe? Did that mean Dawn was performing?

  His mind raced, but the roar of the crowd picked up as the announcer made her way onto the stage, giant screens around the stadium showing a close up image of her.

  “And now the introduction you’ve all been waiting for!” She said into the microphone. “Sometimes he’s a Gym Leader, other times he’s a champion master, and still other times he’s a top coordinator!”

  “I thought we established that he wasn’ the champion? I know this is named after ‘im ‘n’ all, but do they really gotta be such bootlickers?”

  N couldn’t find it in himself to disagree.

  “And you all know his name!” The announcer continued as a Milotic leapt out of the pool, rings of water circling around it and sparkling under the sunlight. The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as the Pokemon’s eyes lit up, twisting around itself as it commanded the pool to rise up into two giant waves. The rings around its body shot forward as it pointed its head down, making it to a platform extending into the water just before the two waves crashed into each other.

  When the water fell away, Wallace was kneeling on the platform. That was certainly a fancy trick. A teleportation at just the right moment, maybe? He didn’t even look wet.

  “He’s a true genius, the Contest Master Wallace!”

  Even the ever quiet Lucas beside him seemed ready to say something if this lady kept sucking up to the man, his face scrunching up in disapproval and disgust.

  Wallace stood, tossing his white cape around dramatically. “Hello Sinnoh, and a big good morning! I’m happy to welcome you to the Wallace Cup, at the beautiful Lake Valor. Everyone stand up!”

  As his Milotic landed on the platform behind him, somehow having kept itself airborne that entire time, geysers of water erupted up through the open roof in a ring around him. Most of the crowd stood in excitement in a deafening roar.

  At that point N zoned out, letting them drone on and on about how amazing this contest was, how people all over the world had flocked to it, all the while Wallace stood there looking smug.

  This guy seriously had an ego on him…

  “...and now for our first contestant!”

  “Wartortle now, on stage!” A young girl shouted, sporting some sort of strange flowy outfit that made her look like a princess of Orre.

  Mimikyu stiffened on his shoulder, but stayed silent.

  Interesting.

  Wartortle erupted from her ball with a flurry of pink bubbles that could only be seals. Rapid Spin allowed her to skip across the water’s surface like May had thrown a rock, and Aqua Tail combined with that momentum made for what was essentially the prettiest decorative water fountain that Dawn had ever seen.

  Dawn felt weak in the knees and like her stomach was full of Mothims.

  The Princess of Hoenn was competing.

  She was doomed.

  Her nerves had been bad enough leading up to this. Knowing that Wallace of all people would be judging her performance. But to have another legend not only present, but apparently competing against her?

  May was beautiful and confident in herself. Her Pokemon was amazing and that performance made everything Dawn had ever done with Piplup look like child’s play in comparison.

  The feeling only got worse as she listened to Wallace praise May on the television they had set up in the competitors’ waiting room.

  Would he praise her?

  Would anyone?

  It didn’t feel that way, even if she knew that was wrong. Zoey and Brock, Ash and N, they at least….

  What had Zoey called this? Just practice?

  That was right. She just needed to breath. Just needed to stay calm.

  In a way, this took some pressure off of her, didn’t it?

  Nobody would expect her to beat the Princess of Hoenn. She just needed to not make a fool of herself.

  No need to worry.

  Chatot, Vulpix, Venomoth, Sharpedo, Cloyster. None were bad, but they were nothing to write home about either.

  Jesselina and her Wobbuffet… they were certainly… well. Ash didn’t have it in him to say anything bad about them, but he wasn’t entirely sure what the coordinator had been thinking with that one.

  Ash knew better than to assume May had this contest in the bag, though. Especially when the next person to step out onto the stage was Zoey in a burgundy suit, tossing her pokeball and releasing something he’d never seen before.

  “Finneon, the wing-fish Pokemon. Because of its twintailed fins that flutter like wings when swimming, Finneon has been called the Beautifly of the sea.” His Pokedex read out for the three of them.

  “Pika pi?”

  “Beautifly of the sea? I can see that… it’s definitely got a form that’s good for contests,” Brock commented.

  “Silver Wind!”

  Finneon jumped out of the water, letting loose twin streams of glowing powder across the water’s surface.

  “Now, Safeguard!”

  As it dived back into the water, Finneon’s form was still clearly visible with the green glow of the Safeguard lighting it up.

  “Waterfall!”

  A column of water shot up out of the pool’s surface, and Finneon swam up it in a spiral before finishing with a flourish in the air.

  When it landed back in the water, Zoey stood with her arms outstretched, Finneon matching the movement with its fins.

  The crowd erupted and Ash frowned. He hoped May was paying attention, because this was her competition. Zoey was good, definitely in the top percentage of what he’d seen while in Sinnoh. He had no doubt that there were more tricks up her sleeves, and if his old friend wasn’t careful she’d fall behind.

  Although, if Zoey was here, then perhaps he had another friend he needed to root for…

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The next contestant to walk out was a lean man who seemed to be taking a… different approach. Rather than stylish or sophisticated like most of the men so far, he looked to have a theme going on. A long black tattered coat was draped over his shoulders and closed enough on the top buttons to hide his shirt, dark boots and glossy pants covering his legs. Blue hair was messily tucked up into a captain’s hat that cast a shadow over his face.

  Mimikyu made a confused sound. “Is that s’posed ta be some sort of knock off Drake cosplay or somethin’?”

  Now that he had pointed it out, N could see the similarities. It wasn’t like the Hoenn Elite Four member owned the look of a grizzled captain or anything, but the look was definitely reminiscent of him.

  A glance over at Wallace was enough to see that he was eating it up. The man hadn’t been shy about showing his preference for Water types, and a contestant with a look like this was bound to give him exactly what he wanted. If nothing else, he had to give it to this guy for knowing his audience.

  What slipped out from beneath the man’s large coat, however, was not a Water type.

  Instead it was a Steel type that flashed them all with an Intimidate, sending a shiver down their spines before it sank beneath the surface of the water.

  N’s jaw dropped. “Was that….?”

  Mimikyu seemed similarly caught off guard. “Blue hair, huh…?”

  He could feel the way Marowak tensed up in his lap, straining to get a good look at the pool. Lucas seemed to straighten up in his seat as well.

  Mawile didn’t immediately resurface though, which had the crowd looking around uneasily, N included. “Uh, Mimikyu, do you know if Mawile can swim?”

  “I mean… I don’ think she should be heavy enough that she wouldn’ be able to?” He didn’t sound very confident, though.

  For a moment, N found himself wondering if this was their Mawile at all. It was as the Shadows had said, wasn’t it? There were plenty of Mawile out there. Surely one of his Shadows wouldn’t send out his friend to just drown in front of thousands of people…

  Just when the judges themselves were starting to get concerned, there was finally some movement. Fog started to drift up off of the surface of the pool, tinted just a bit pink and filling the arena with an ever so slightly sweet aroma. It started as faint wisps but quickly grew into a rolling fog that was so thick you could hardly see through it, let alone see the water’s surface. The only indication that Mawile had surfaced was the way the fog rippled, clearly marking some sort of movement beyond their sight. The screens up above showed everyone how it slowly made its way towards the judges, speeding up as it got closer.

  A quiet tension filled the room as the movement stilled at the pool’s edge

  And then all at once, the judge’s panel was splashed with water as Mawile leapt out of the pool draped in shadow that obscured her form. Three of them flinched back in their seats, but Wallace stood firm, keeping his eye on the performance even as Mawile’s giant mouth swung around and snapped shut just inches from his face with a Bite.

  When Mawile fell into a bow, Wallace began a slow clap that was quickly joined in on by the audience.

  “I thought she wanted to be cute? That was scary!” Marowak complained.

  Mimikyu hummed. “It was unique. I wouldn’ be s’prised if that gets ‘em into the next round.”

  Unique? That was an apt word to use. In a way, Mawile’s performance made him think less of a contest performance and more of something he might see out of Pokestar Studios’ horror film.

  Not something he would ever expect out of Mawile, and the Shadow… he hadn’t recognized him at all. Still didn’t, if he were being honest.

  Perhaps his plan might actually work.

  Machinations like that were for behind the scenes, however, and so N was forced to listen to Wallace drone on once more as the Shadow led Mawile back into the waiting area.

  “Performances like that really get your blood pumping, don’t they?” The crowd cheered at his words. “This is what contests are truly about! Showing off the beauty of Pokemon! And so, with that in mind… can I ask you all to keep a secret?”

  The cameras switched off of him, the giant screens instead showing a view of outside the stadium. A confused murmur spread amongst the crowd.

  Just what was he trying to pull here?

  “You see, for one such as I, contests are everything. The opportunity to see the spectacular performances trainers have put together stands above all else!” He paused, a bit over dramatically, and the crowd quieted for him. “And so, if you all can keep a secret from my coworkers in the League… then I will show you something that only you will ever see! The first Wallace Cup where we have contestants from far, far away! Cynthia told me it could not be done, but for you? My adoring fans? How could I resist!”

  N blinked. When they’d initially run into him, Wallace had mentioned that there would be contestants from outside of the League, but he had figured it meant the Orange Islands or something. Not officially represented within the League, but an incorporated territory. The way he was talking, though…

  Was this lunatic about to bring in coordinators from enemy states?

  “While those watching from home enjoy some extra commentary and extended commercial breaks, allow me to introduce a beauty from overseas!”

  A dark skinned woman perhaps slightly older than him strutted out onto the stage.

  “What the fuck?” Mimikyu spat out.

  A skirt made of large leaves draped over dry grasses bounced with every step. What he thought was a large berry seemed to have been cut in half, dried out, and… well, used as a top. The dozens of pieces of sparkling jewelry draped over her body were an easy distraction from that, with rocks and metals clacking together and catching the light in colorful ways.

  “The Kahuna of Akala Island all the way in Alola, here’s Olivia!”

  Marowak looked between the woman and Mimikyu. “Alola? You said I was an Alolan Marowak, right?”

  “Yeah…” Mimikyu halfheartedly agreed, apparently captivated by the woman.

  N’s mind raced. Alola… well, while not explicitly on either good or bad terms with the League, he could understand why Wallace might want a bit of secrecy involved with her presence. There was no way it was going to stay a secret, but that was his grave to dig.

  “Golem!” With a shout, she released her Pokemon.

  A giant boulder materialized in the air. Roughly circular, stubby little arms and legs stuck out of it that ended in large nails. On its front was an angular head, its mouth gaping open with just two teeth that were more like fangs. Strangely, it seemed to have a lot of facial hair? He didn’t think he’d ever seen that on a Rock type before. Thick eyebrows, a heavy mustache, and a big, bushy beard clung to it. Perhaps the most eye catching part of its biology was what looked to be… the head of a wrench? He wasn’t quite sure what else to call it, the giant stone structure on top of its head in a darker color that matched its hair.

  The thing must have weighed a ton, because it immediately started dropping out of the air. He’d seen what Boldore got like when they fell into a river, so N could only wince.

  “Magnet Rise!”

  A spark.

  What must be less than an inch from the surface of the water, Golem stopped falling, kept aloft by sparks erupting from its feet. It started to skate across the surface of the pool like that as Lucas hurriedly pulled out his Pokedex.

  “Golem,” the device read out, “the Megaton Pokemon. Even dynamite can’t harm its hard, boulderlike body. It sheds its hide just once a year. This Alolan variant fires rocks charged with electricity. Even if the rock isn’t fired accurately, just grazing an opponent will cause numbness and fainting.”

  “So they’re like me….” Marowak hummed quietly.

  “In a sense, I s’pose. ‘Cept with that line they’re a variant all the way down. Even Alolan Geodude is Rock ‘n’ Electric.”

  N frowned. “That is what Geodude evolve into?”

  “Yep, final form.”

  N did his best to shove down the annoyance that flared inside him of just the reminder of tripping over so many of the things in dark caves.

  After a few laps around the pool, Olivia shouted her next command. “Rock Blast!”

  Large stones rocket up out of the pool, likely stolen from the concrete that served as its foundation, moving one at a time to sit between the two prongs on top of the Golem. The crowd watched as electricity built up around the stones, drying them almost instantly as the water exploded into steam before they were rocketed into the air at insane speeds, flying out of the open roof and far beyond sight.

  Lucas leaned forward in his seat, likely enticed by the combat potential of such a move, and N resisted the urge to chide him for it.

  Olivia still had more to show. “Galvanized Explosion!”

  Everyone in the stadium, including Wallace this time, flinched back at that command. Everyone knew what an Explosion did, and this woman must be insane to pull something like that when surrounded by people!

  Golem lit up, light shining through the gaps in the rocks that made it up, and a moment later everything went white.

  There wasn’t the telltale sound that he was used to, however. Instead, there was the crackle of electricity.

  When his vision cleared, it wasn’t to see shrapnel all over the crowd. The stones that made Golem up were instead suspended in the air, connected by arcs of lightning as they spun and spun and spun. The orbit of stones quickly collapsed in on itself, looking like it was going to reform in less than 30 seconds, which was practically magic in N’s eyes.

  There was a reason using the move counted as a self knockout in the battling scene. It could take a Pokemon hours to reform on their own. A reformation this short was insane!

  Just when the gap between the stones was starting to truly close, the Rock Blast from earlier came crashing back down, shooting right through the middle of the orbit and splashing into the pool. Water that got near Golem vaporized, and when it was made whole once more it dropped out of its Magnet Rise, landing on one of the Rock Blast projectiles that just barely provided enough room for it to stand on.

  Olivia bowed with a flourish, and the whole stadium erupted.

  The Alolan woman returned her Pokemon and walked back behind the scenes once more as the crew worked to restore the pool to the way it was meant to be, and as the crowd’s applause died down Wallace began speaking once more.

  “Was that not magnificent?! Truly, our friends from outside the League have much we can learn from! But what sort of contest would this be if I let it end there?!”

  The crowd screamed as he all but flat out said there would be another surprise drop in.

  “I thank her from the bottom of my heart for taking the time out of her busy schedule to attend! A woman who seems well on her way to becoming a Gym Leader of the far flung Paldea! The Bewitching Beautician! Please put your hands together for Tulip of Alfornada!”

  Wallace truly had lost his mind. Paldea?

  There were shocked gasps among the crowd. A few booed just from hearing that.

  Paldea wasn’t on the level of Kalos, but N was certain that many of the older generations personally knew someone who had been killed by a Paldean soldier in the war. Bringing one of them here was… it was madness!

  “Uh.. N…?” Mimikyu prompted.

  “I’ll explain later,” N quieted him.

  The little fae didn’t seem happy with that, but Tulip made her appearance then.

  The woman who walked out had to be a model. The way that she so easily commanded attention as she walked onto the platform with her high heels made N sure of that. The flowing purple dress, the perfectly styled violet hair, the expertly applied makeup that brought out her hazel eyes and sun-kissed skin. This was clearly a woman whose appearance had to be perfect.

  Nobody seemed to care about that though, given what Wallace had said.

  “?Espathra, es hora de actuar!”

  The confirmation that she was Paldean made the boos return, but she seemed to care for the crowd’s opinion as much as they cared for hers.

  It had the legs of a flying type, bent backwards and ending in talons… if a teenage girl had stuffed them in striped cream and purple socks. Its body was round and bulbous, the same creamy color that parts of its legs were. What N thought might be wings looked more like halves of a dress, orange draped over yellow draped over cream, all with ruffles and hiding a drape-like tail. The neck was long and curved, reminiscent of the legs but with the same orange on the wings rather than cream. The head seemed to have a beak in shape, but it lacked features. No mouth, no nose, no ears that he could see. Just large eyes that were a piercing light blue with the exception of white irises. As if to protect it from the sun’s harsh rays, it had some sort of hair or feathers that looked more like a cloth draped over its head.

  “Brillo Mágico.”

  A light blossomed out from Espathra’s beak, but didn’t seem to do much more than blind the audience once more. Or rather, that was all it did until Esparthra took off with surprising speed, running over the water and kicking up a mess of it into the air. The droplets caught the light still being emitted and cast a rainbow over the field.

  The pool was only so large, and the foreign Pokemon ran quite fast. It had no choice but to circle around and around, and with the speeds it was moving at the water in the pool started to form a whirlpool, spilling out over the sides.

  “Bola Sombra.”

  A purple ball of unsettling energy shot out into the whirlpool, quickly getting caught up in it rather than powering through. Had it been intentionally underpowered? Either way, it held firm, or at least as firm as a ball of energy can be, and started swirling around, draining towards the bottom of the pool.

  “Psíquico.”

  Every command was simple and calm, but Espathra knew just what to do. The Pokemon ran itself to the center of the whirlpool, which by now had gotten to the point that the concrete below was visible for a small radius, and let its eyes glow blue with what N recognized as Psychic power.

  The entire pool full of water took on the same glow, being lifted off of the ground and up into the air, still swirling, creating a huge ball of rotating water, the Shadow Ball still floating inside of it. Right above the Pokemon’s head, the Shadow Ball slowed to a stop as it found the center of the vortex.

  It then exploded. Ghostly energy tainted the water as it rained back down into the pool, casting Espathra in shadow.

  “Brillo Mágico otra vez.”

  The light from the beginning of the performance returned, washing away the remnants of the Shadow Ball from the rain and bringing another rainbow across the arena as the rest of the water fell back into the pool, notably looking exactly as it had at the start of the performance.

  Tulip waved to the crowd, her face emotionless, and only Wallace and the other judges clapped for her. N felt a bit bad, given that it was leagues above what many other coordinators had done in the last hour, but clapping when the whole audience had it out for her would only draw attention to him that he really didn’t need.

  Wallace took the attention of the cameras once more, now back up and running. The “commercial break” must have ended for those watching the broadcast.

  “Contests are a wonderful way for everyone to see the beauty of Pokemon, are they not?”

  Nobody would think much of that if they watched the broadcast, but it was a clear chastisement of the audience in attendance. That was all the man said though, before he got yet more contestants to come perform. The energy wasn’t quite the same, though, and the coordinators seemed a lot more nervous after having to follow that up. Most were uninspired or boring, so N zoned them out, and Lucas seemed to have stopped caring after “cool foreign Pokemon” stopped appearing.

  N’s heart sank as they announced the last coordinator.

  Lucas perked up again, but cringed even more so than N did as Dawn stumbled, almost dropping her Pokeball.

  Pachirisu was released into a flurry of heart shaped seals, but nervously backed away from the pool's edge.

  The number of hearts in the air increased as Dawn shouted for a Sweet Kiss, the entire cloud of them popping into sparkles as a Discharge targeted them all at once.

  And that was it.

  It was simple. Over quite fast. Better than a good chunk of what they’d seen from no name trainers, admittedly, but…

  Well, N just hoped the judges were a bit generous with her.

  Translations:Shout out to Rim in the discord for helping me with the spanish in today’s chapter

  es hora de actuar = “it’s time to perform”

  Brillo Mágico = Dazzling Gleam

  Bola Sombra = Shadow Ball

  Psíquico = Psychic

  Otra vez = do it again

  Alolan Golem can actually learn Magnet Rise through breeding with a Probopass in gen 7.

  Why does Pachirisu have no fucking moves. Bulbapedia says Dawn’s little rat only ever used Spark, Sweet Kiss, Discharge, and Super Fang. The hell kind of moveset is that?!

  Contest is getting split into multiple chapters because this shit was getting too long.

  As always, feedback is appreciated. (If you’re actually looking for a response, discord is the place to be)