Episode 8: A Big Splash!

[Harley Scarow]

Episode 8: A Big Splash!

Traveling down the blue city of Blue Brook, May and Drew have finally arrived at their next destination. The both of them were eager to go onto the next contest, traveling through the black-paved road without thoughts of where they should actually be heading to—the contest registration hall. The city was scattered with dozens of water fountains, with Pokémon spitting their cute water out of their mouths. Of course, these were water-type Pokémon, fitting to the aura the city was giving out. There was a renaissance feel.

“So where should we go to again?” asked May, stupidly wondering.

“The Pokémon Contest hall, what do you think?”

“But I heard this town has so many different sights to go to!”

“Like what?”

A pamphlet flew in the air. With her rushed hands, May grabbed onto the pamphlet and opened it to the first page she could get to. A huge water dome appeared on the page.

Wondering what May had in mind, Drew took the pamphlet. “You want to go to the famous Blue Brook Aquarium? Whatever, might as well head over there anyways.”

“Well you certainly have some kind of attitude. You have any better ideas?”

“Going to the Contest Hall and registering,” smirked Drew. “What else?”

The pamphlet was decorated with blue bubbles all over its romantic skins, and many Water-type Pokémon similar to the statues as they were passing from earlier were also scattered on them. While May was pondering on the fact Drew would always ignore her, she looked down on the pamphlet. There was a picture of a blue ribbon with pink and azure bubbles scattered all over the adorable little ornament. More coincidentally, the blue ribbon happened to be in the same place as the aquarium place they were heading.

“Um, Drew…” started May. “Maybe this point might prove you wrong.”

“Since when are you right?” replied Drew, rudely.

With her right index finger, May pointed over to the blue ribbon with bubbles.”

“Wow, you finally pointed it out. It took you long enough.”

“WHAT? You mean you already knew it was there?”

The duo was already heading over to the site where the ribbon pointed to, which would be down the brick road they were itinerant on. This road had the same bouncy feel, like Ponyta and Rapidash were around and riding with their metal hooves and such. The air’s hovering feel of mist and wonder left the two looking around the sites, even Drew, who would never divert away from his main goal. They stayed a few feet apart from each other when they were walking, always keeping their rivalry intact, even if they were disturbed by the environment. Something in the air struck rapid emotion in May, which was a statue of a Squirtle, reminding her of the Squirtle yesterday that evolved into Wartortle during the fight. Many of the puddles in the ground gave a strange nostalgic feel, as if May and Drew were in the past. No they weren’t, but it still had the aroma.

Eventually, May and Drew arrived at the Blue Brook Aquarium, and its image was exactly what May would have guessed when she pointed it out. The ribbon on the pamphlet was a little more than obvious, defying Drew’s keen knowledge and good eyesight. With the same shape and color, the blue ribbon stood above the dome in a magnificent view. There were many other coordinators around the area, many of them having their prized Water-type Pokémon outside. They were clearly going to enter the contest, especially since some of them were practicing their moves. Many of the moves were obviously water, but each one was able to manipulate the simple blue element and turn it into an elegant work of art. Compared to those other coordinators, May and Drew didn’t even have a single Pokémon out. While this thought never went through Drew’s head yet, he didn’t have any Water-type Pokémon to enter the Pokémon Contest. As usual, Drew would have another plan up his sleeve, whether it was helpful or not.

A card shaped like a tear flew through the air. Nobody in the crowd seemed to take any care on it, but it landed on May’s face hilariously. As usual, Drew snickered about it.

“Stop laughing! My face is ruined now!” May grabbed it off and attempted to rip it in half, but it remained in place. “What the hell is this thing made of to begin with?”

“Well, at least now I know what a witch looks like,” rudely commented Drew.

The paper fell onto the ground and dissolved into the cement as liquid. A voice spoke.

~ * ~

Deep Doom

Revolve around the moons the rivers run,
To seek the female taunting in the sea,
Beyond the dark horizon, and the sun,
And fall down as the raindrops on the trees.
It pains, it sorrows, reaching on the grass,
The rivers wash away her face in wet,
To even reaching hopeless stark and bass,
About the letter’s melt, the plan is set.
The bloom and razors of the streaming wash,
Revealing acids melted in quavers,
To deep below the seas the dark claws slash,
Returning lashes drag down in rivers.

My deep revenge will travel down in zooms,
I wish to see you later in deep doom.

~ * ~

“Is this supposed to be like, a death note or something?” deliberated May. “If it is, then it’s not that funny. Anyways, let’s just go and enter the contest already. Move, people!”

While May was good for rude gestures, she took it to the next level. Holding onto Drew’s hand, May rushed through the crowd, knocking down everybody else on her path as if she didn’t even have a care for how long they may have been waiting. While some of them yelled at May for being so rude, the others laid back without another care. The rude girl almost tripped on a huge block of ice that a nearby Vaporeon materialized onto the ground when working on an appeal. It was stupidly hilarious, yet nobody cared.

“Why do you have to be so rude?” shouted Drew, getting his arm off May out of utter disgust. “No wonder everybody hates you. Learn to have some patience already.”

“Well if we waited, then everybody would have been ahead of us already!”

Making her way into the dome of the aquarium, the tanks within had gorgeous water Pokémon scattered all over them. They were mostly Goldeen and Seaking, but these Pokémon were different than the normal ones. It was as if they were trained specifically for a Pokémon Contest. Normally, a Pokémon as useless as a Goldeen couldn’t stand a single minute out of water, but there were some “swimming” on land on the other side of the bridge. They were climbing up Waterfalls like regular Goldeen, and then landing on another surface with gentle care. Without even flopping around randomly like, well, a fish out of water, the Goldeen were magnificently portrayed as water dancers. Being true to their name, a glistering sparkle shattered from their superfluous performance as they danced in the air one more time. It was hard to see far away, but a girl wearing a golden swimsuit was coordinating them. Others in the room whom watched her performance with utter stunning looks, alarmed as well. Afterwards, many applauded for the girl.

“You see?” topped May, applauding. “If we came later, we would’ve missed this.”

“Well, I guess you’re right—for once. Now let’s enter the Pokémon Contest.”

“No, I want to meet up with that girl first. Now, YOU enter us while I watch.”

As usual, May was querulous to her target. Running over the bridge comically with a smoke trail behind her, May rudely crashed into many more people. After making it over to the girl, May tripped over the watching crowd and fell into the pool—the same one used for making the performance. Landing inside with a big splash, the many Goldeen scattered away, as if trying to avoid May’s aura of embarrassment. Everybody around laughed, but May didn’t care, leaping out and running over to the watery coordinator.

“Hi, I’m May, and what’s your—wait, aren’t you Jody?”

“Uh, yes I am, and you’re May,” Jody replied, giggling to May’s clumsiness. “Yeah, I remember you from yesterday. Thanks for coming into an act. You sure made a big upcoming splash, especially to the crowd. You’re resilient to that crash, aren’t you?”

Comically slapping Jody, May was enraged. “Where did you go after yesterday? Me and Drew were looking all over you! Don’t you know how rude it is to even do that?”

“No, but don’t YOU know it’s rude to crash into the pool like this so randomly? Once before, and once again, you proved it. Tee-hee! Now I know what a witch looks like!”

“Now, I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t hear that coming out of your mouth. And…can you show me one of your appeals before the Blue Brook Contest begins soon?”

“Sure, no problem—but first, I have to finish the appeal right here before I can show you another one,” turning around to the crowd, Jody was ready. “Alright everyone, watch this next part! Now Goldeen, use your Waterfall attack on each other, and then break apart!”

All of the Goldeen listened to Jody as if they were one Pokémon. Some of them began building up energy, like the way they would normally before they use an attack like Waterfall. A move such as Waterfall would also involve controlling force many more times than the size of their bodies, but having many Goldeen would make the task much easier. The assiduous Goldeen began forming an array on top of each other, then forming the huge vertical wave standing in the middle of the entire arena. Some of the water trickles began elegantly raining down on them, although this showering effect was intentional. The strenuous attack had some of the Goldeen ride up the waterfall, which took place in the middle of the lengthy stage. In addition, this standing waterfall transformed into a horizontal line, allowing the Goldeen to travel across it and fall back down in elegant formation. A golden rainbow shined down at each dazzling step they took, before they fell back down with a swoop, and reappeared with their sharp horn.

Afterwards, all of the Goldeen used the slope of the Waterfall as a balance, landing on top of each other with a standing balance, like a cheerleading squad. Magically, some of the Goldeen from below began evolving into Seaking with a red glow brimming across the field. A good notion to notice was this—the only Goldeen evolving into Seaking were the ones stretching across the Waterfall before landing back down to the water. Not all of them managed to evolve, which made the variation between colors even more obvious. A quick twirl caused the waterfall to intentionally break down on all of the Seaking and Goldeen, which loved the experience. Clearly, Goldeen was not fully adapt to using a range of powerful water-type moves, but Waterfall was one of the few exceptions. Since climbing Waterfalls was genetically inside of a Goldeen and a Seaking’s genes, ranging over them was a simple task in life. Putting them to show in front of an entire stage—using a generated waterfall, would experience an even higher range of difficulty for the magical fish. Afterwards, everything broke down into formation. Everyone applauded.

This river’s sound even caught Drew’s attention. While Drew was too embarrassed to even look at May, this diverted his consideration of awareness and alert. “Wow, a “low-class” coordinator like May being next to an appeal such as that. It’s a disgrace, yet a lesson at the same time. One May won’t learn with me, yet forever she will remember.”

“Now people, there’s one more thing I should give all of you guys before I make my exit, and you know well what it is! It’s the poem that I’ve been working on for a while!”

“Wow, Jody’s a poet also?” said an impressed May. “She said nothing yesterday.”

~ * ~

Waterfall

The streaming waterfall relives today
Beauty as she lives upon the morning
Breathes upon the rising underdog's swim
The Goldeen friends growing swiftly among
With passionate brimming shine above thorns
As tomorrow's new, glistering babies
To bring essence back into the world's breathed.
The gentle, swift waterfall to become
It rains down the sleepy slope, raining up
With brown rocks and blue shores aside cascades
They furnish to worlds lying down, yet up
It lies at bottoms, vertical currents
And returns back to new boundaries light
Tomorrow's thirst is quenched, rising once more.
Like the morning dew’s steep climb, ever rose
The mountain of water, eternal dreams
Arranged above, like golden leaves upon
Aquatic dreams, where tomorrow’s rising
Blooms into the swimming life, her wish
And once again attempt to brave side waves
To finally become—the Seaking queen.

~ * ~

The entire congregation cheered on for Jody’s assiduous effort in her poetry. No, it wasn’t an at-least-she-tried effort—it was real. The poem had some deep emotions delved into its words, and the praise was well-deserved. The words turned an arid and rough heart to a quenched and nonchalant mood. The adulation from the orator in both the appeal and poetry was precocious. Even Drew gave the slightest bit of effort into showing he was impressed at Jody’s performance, applauding as well. Afterwards, he turned around and walked across the bridge, which was safely situated above a pool of water. The congregation left the area, after throwing some money into the pool. Afterwards, Jody turned and walked away, obviously not in an area of poverty at all. It was one to shine, and another one to smile at tomorrow when you gazed at it once. The poem had a wonderful trickling of waterfalls, and added to the already scenic appearance of the location they were in. Everybody smiled at Jody’s effort, and even Drew took yet another step closer to the stadium. Clearly, Drew was ready to question and challenge Jody at this work.

[Harley Scarow]

“That girl sure is something!” complimented a member of the crowd.

“So May, are you going to enter the contest soon?” asked Jody.

“Of course!” May had answered for Drew as well, even though he wasn’t at the corner.

“Why don’t you show me one of your appeals?”

“Why not? Go Blaziken—”

“You should use a Water-type Pokémon, since we’re at the aquarium,” Jody advised. “Hey everybody, there’s another show that my friend here’s going to approve right now!”

Everybody turned around, eager to see what May had for them.

“Alright then, this is gonna be awesome!” May threw her Poké Ball. “Go Wartortle!”

Escaping from the Poké Ball was May’s Wartortle. “Wartortle!”

“Now Wartortle, use your Ice Beam to freeze the water, then Rapid Spin on the ice!”

Wartortle did as asked, unleashing a powerful blue beam of ice directly at the aquarium’s ground and instantly freezing it. Everybody in the arena was impressed at the time it took to make it, which was very quick. The floor gazed with sparkling ice, including the shelled Pokémon looking down on the frozen ground for a good look at itself. The ice was fashioned to make sure May and Jody would not get frozen by the glaciers, fixed into perfect formation. Glisters hovered from above the stags, and Wartortle was ready to perform the next part of the appeal in style.

Withdrawing back into his shell, Wartortle began bouncing around the stage. She cracked onto the edges and made remote bouncing sounds hovering in a perfect cling. The ice began breaking apart as per the chipping of her hard shell, like an ice breaker. Eventually, all of the ice shattered onto the ground, and nothing but the aquarium’s empty waters were shown. The crowd was stupidly amazed at this beautiful show, but had the mind to wonder what was the point of it. The only thing May managed to prove was that Wartortle was able to crack the ice—nothing else.

“That’s NOT all, folks! Now I’ll go into the frozen sparks, then Wartortle, Bubble!”

Idiotically making her way into the icy sparks, May danced and pretended to swim in the ice shards, chipping off gently on her skin without any wounds. The crowd was shocked at how May would try to detract attention away from her Pokémon and direct it towards herself, although none of them left at this performance. This was a risky move, as May might be attacked rapidly by the homing bubbles—the same ones Wartortle commenced to releasing from her mouth with a powerful charge. Instead of hitting May directly like they comically would, they were shattered by the icy shards and icy sparks flew around the entire field. While the pre-evolved form, Squirtle, could be able to pull off a move as dazzling as this, it would not have happened as quick. The shards were weak in coldness, and eventually melted back into the aquarium’s calmness like it was before. Everybody in the stadium clapped at May’s artistic performance.

“Well you sure wanted to show off,” snickered Drew at May after her performance. “You knew that people obviously liked Jody more, so you made sure you got most of the spotlight.”

“What do you know, Drew? Do you see this audience applauding for you?”

They weren’t clapping, but they were ganging up around Drew.

“OMFG it’s Drew!” one of the girls squealed in a weak and obnoxious way.

“He’s so cute!” another one squealed.

“He is so better than that skank over there!” the third one rudely commented.

Walking over the girls, Drew made his way over to May. “Unlike what you should have done earlier, I registered for the contest. It’s going to take place sometime later, so be there, okay?”

“Whatever, Drew. Since I’m so bad, I have a lot of training to do, right?”

“Yeah, I saw you earlier from afar,” Drew complimented as if May wasn’t there. “It was something to wonder, definitely better than the aftermath. A lot to learn there, May….”

“What do you mean by that?” grunted an enraged May.

“Did you like my waterfall technique?” Jody asked, obviously wanting some criticism from one of the most well-known coordinators to set foot in the town. “Tell me what you think.”

“It had style, but lacked your own work. Most of it just came from the Pokémon.”

With this sign of advice, May was further raged. “But I participated in the appeal!”

“And you took most of the spotlight away from Wartortle,” added Drew. “Whenever I appeal, girls always foolishly love me for the little participation I add, but it’s still participation.”

“Why don’t you two meet me later at the stone fountain when we leave? Right now, I have to go and dry up after that appeal I made. It’s in front of the aquarium and you can’t miss it.”

* * *

A few minutes passed. May and Drew were waiting outside at the stone fountain area, where many aquatic Pokémon were spraying water out of their mouth, as if performing a Water Gun attack down at the bowl. There were many other civilians surrounding the area, including the many coordinators getting ready for the contest that would soon take place at this location. A word to speak, and one to wonder as to where Jody was. It shouldn’t take this long to dry up, but eventually she came outside, ready to tell May and Drew about what she had in mind for them.

“So what did you want to tell us?” asked May for Drew.

“Did you guys ever meet somebody named Rick before?”

“Rick,” that name traveled through Drew’s mind. With that single name, Drew remembered the humiliating defeat Flygon suffered at the hands of Drew’s Sharpile. “Yeah, I recall….”

“There’s a lot more to him than meets the eyes,” added Jody. “We both go to the same school next to Aura Bridge, and there’s been some dangerous activity going about around him.”

“You’re saying he’s dangerous?” pondered May with a blur. “To me, Rick was a nice jerk.”

Suddenly from the skies, a purple beam with the silhouette of a moth came towards May, Drew, and Jody, of familiar scent as well. It exploded around the fountain, causing all of the other coordinators to run away. Both May and Jody took for cover, while Drew had thoughts of revenge coming through his mind. In addition to the barrage of moth silhouettes causing swarmed explosions, a familiar screech ran through the ground. It was the sound of two Manyula, of siblings slicing through the familiar land. They appeared in front of Drew.

“Just like yesterday, eh?” Drew took out a rose and materialized it into a sword, with the green lining becoming the metal binds while the rose became the dangerous edge. “How stupid.”

“Didn’t the same thing happen yesterday?” wondered Jody.

“Drew, no!” May tried running towards Drew, but one of the Manyula got in the way.

“Manyula!” “Manyula!”

The two weasels were about to slice across Drew’s neck before he took the rose and shielded it in front of his lining. The claws slid off the metal edge with a powerful screech, but the Manyula were not ready to give up yet. They flew behind Drew and were about to launch their claws into Drew’s back, but something saved him. A Pokémon appeared with the surface image of a leafy sea dragon. Water droplets and grass pellets fell all over from its down, and the Pokémon was able to repel the claw without any effort at all. The Manyula walked back with some fear.

“Thanks, you saved me,” Drew was relieved to see the view of this leafy sea dragon.

Taking a deep breath, Jody was relieved. “Good thing I sent you out in time, right?”

Leafgon, the Leafy Sea Dragon Pokémon. A Leafgon is known to use its grass shoots to make nests deep down underwater. However, they are able to survive on land as well. The leaves they have on land usually have the stain of blood on them, coming from battles afar with death and drama leaking abound. While a Leafgon would never do anything reckless, it is usually hunted for its treasures hidden deep down under the sea. However, those attacking a Leafgon are usually unaware of the sharp leaves they have, getting prickled and slit by their spiking intensity.

“That’s your Leafgon?” asked May, impressed. “Thank goodness you sent it out in time.”

“It’s a she, and thanks,” Jody walked over to the two Manyula, whom took a step back. “Tell me why did you attack Drew suddenly? Rains don’t fall on you without natural reason, you know.”

“Manyula…” “Manyula…”

“Ahahahahaha!” a loud, screeching voice was in the air. It was of crimson beauty, and elegant design as more fluttering shadows attacked the ground to swarm up more trouble.

“That’s Jessie of Team Rocket!” yelled May. “Not again!”

“For the last time, I’m not with Team Rocket anymore!” scolded Jessie. “And I’ll tell you one more time—I’m with the new and improved version of Team Rocket! It’s—Team Rocket X!”

“Well you’re not about to cause any more trouble!” May threw out a Poké Ball…

…releasing Wartortle, whom charged into a Rapid Spin, “Wartortle!”

“It’s a good thing Harley gave me a Water-type Pokémon to enter the Blue Brook Pokémon Contest,” muttered Jessie under her breath. “Time for a grand and shocking entrance!”

Throwing a green-thorn ball—a Scarow Ball, Jessie released a new Pokémon with the entrance in a shower of dark thorns. It was a tiny baby squid about two feet tall with only two tentacles.

“Introducing,” began Jessie. “Squiddle!”

“What kind of Pokémon is that?” wondered May, pulling out her PokéDex.

Squiddle, the Baby Squid Pokémon. A Squiddle is grown with only two tentacles, barely able to grasp its way through the sea floor. However, as time passes, a Squiddle has the ability to infinitely grow tentacles. This usually occurs whenever a Squiddle is around certain environments in which it favors. A Squiddle can also rapidly grow tentacles if exposed to certain environments involving chemicals. Lately, there has been an abandoned factory with pre-evolved Squiddle containing over twenty tentacles. This may be considered to be an abnormal number.

“It may only have two tentacles now, but let’s take this battle somewhere else, and I’ll show you just how wrong that PokéDex is! It’s much more than twenty, as you will soon see after this.”

The small Squiddle hopped into Jessie’s arms, and the evil girl scoured off. However, Jessie did not airy amble too fast that nobody would be able to follow her. As a matter of fact, Jessie even left a trail around the ground for the group to follow, which was tiny little ink puddles generously splattered on the ground by Squiddle. The three—Jody, May, and Drew followed the little puddle, including other members of the coordinators from before. All of them were enraged. In the end, they made it to the river’s side, which began from a tiny brook in the center of the town.

“Now you’ll learn what I meant by what I told you before!” threatened Jessie.

Jessie unleashed Squiddle from the palm of her hands and the cute little monster looked up at the group in an innocent face. Some of the enraged faces turned into hilarious thoughts as Squiddle stood there, doing absolutely nothing to contribute to whatever Jessie was about to do. Every remark they made did contribute to the actions Jessie was about to pull off to the cute little monster. Taking out a sting gun, Jessie forcefully inserted it into the Pokémon, and caused the little monster to enlarge into a ferocious beast. The beast was more than the PokéDex’s words, in one way or the other. With supplemental size, Squiddle became a darkened squid with much more than two tentacles—as for now, it had twenty, exactly the height of the data’s mutation.

“My Squiddle can evolve multiple times,” explained Jessie. “It’s all thanks to the little mutation I set inside of it from that sting gun I took out! Now Squidark, use your multiple Poison Sting!”

Squidark, the Dark Squid Pokémon. A Squidark is the full evolution of Squiddle as opposed to the pre-mature evolution a Squiddle can get when limbering around places with so-so chemicals wandering around in the water. A Squidark can be formed when too many dangerous chemicals have been focused on a Squiddle. Concentrations of dangerous elements such as mercury would usually kill a creature, but it makes a Squiddle strong enough to evolve to this dangerous beast, which attacks in confusion. A Squidark can unleash attacks simultaneously at its opponents.

Quickly, Squidark released multiple Poison Stings from its tentacles onto the crowd of panicking people. They were all released from each individual tentacle, and homed into the pathetic crowd at the same time. As a gesture of good kindness, Drew held out his hands and caused all of the purple poisons to be cancelled out by a beautiful wall of roses he generated. Each one broke with a single hit, and Drew materialized them from the many hidden roses he always carried with him, which turned out to be a good thing. The crowd was amazed at Drew’s wonderful work again.

“It’s time for me to show you water’s royalty!” declared Jody, throwing out a Net Ball with powerful force behind her. “Your golden colors will shine once more! Come on! Godleo!”

The Net Ball released with the formation of a blue aura-glowing net. It sent out a golden lionfish, taking her grace among the water the new Pokémon summoned upon itself. Already before doing anything, Godleo showed her colors by forming a golden watery wave with glistering treasures inside of it, bursting it among the Squidark with a powerful crash. Everybody around was amazed with the spiny feathers Godleo showed behind her fins, which radiated a purple tone out of them as she travelled through the waters. Even Jessie flinched to see this bursting sight.

“GODLEO!” the Pokémon cried with a tremendous echoing roar.

“Is that your Pokémon?” asked May with a shaking voice. “That’s just…AWESOME!”