A New Dream

Muddy and Gorgeous: Paul's POV

"Well, now that our final performance for the Ka hula round has been given our judges will choose the top four performers. Then we will ask all of those who wish to watch the battle round to go into the outdoor battle area in the back of the Showdown hall," Keanu said with a dazzling smile after the crowd calmed down. Her announcement pulled me out of my uncomfortable thoughts and I realized that must have been why Hau said Torterrra could watch during the battle round.

After a few tense moments the four judges sat back with satisfied looks and Keanu gestured up to the large screen above the stage. As the audience all watched with bated breaths Dawn's face flashed in the first spot, eliciting cheers, and was followed by three other trainers, one other girl and two boys. I remained silent, but I wasn't surprised that Dawn received the highest score; her pokemon's moves had actually been used to enhance the ridiculous dance and gave it an element of magic.

"These four lucky trainers have made it to the battle round. Let's get them back out here for a moment!" 

The four finalists walked onto the stage single file with Dawn in the back. She looked like the oldest of the finalists. The other girl was the one with the breakdancing machop, one of the guys looked like he was barely twelve, and the other looked like he was pushing sixteen. I hadn't been paying much attention to either of their dances, so I grudgingly turned my attention back to the hostess Keanu.

"For the battle round the theme is 'Cleanliness is next to Arceus', and the theme type will be ground." The older boy grinned broadly at this announcement while at the same time Dawn furrowed her brow a bit. "For the battle you will be fighting in the mud pits, created by our wonderful new Kahuna last night, and the point is to try and get the opponents as dirty as possible. Whichever team, including the trainer, is the cleanest at the end of five minutes will be the winner!"

I watched with smug amusement as Dawn's already pale face turned as white as a ghost and her mouth dropped open in shock. Chuckling I watched as she glanced down at her pristine white dress and looked back at the hostess as if she was waiting for her to say that she was joking. Keanu made no such announcement though and instead invited us all to move into the outdoor battlegrounds. I stood up and managed to escape the worst of the crowd fairly quickly, grudgingly admitting that Hau's insistence on me sitting in the front was actually a good thing.

As I walked out of the warm performance hall and into the slightly cooler outdoors I stretched and glanced around, instantly spotting the gigantic mud pit that spanned the full size of a normal pokemon field. After a moment's hesitation, I released Torterra who glanced around at the large crowd of people with confusion.

"Dawn is in her Luau Showdown and is about to get in a battle where they are trying to make each other dirty," I explained to him concisely and he blinked his huge eyes in quiet disbelief.

Gesturing with my head, Torterra followed my line of sight and looked over to where Dawn was gingerly taking off her sandals and giving the mud pit a look more filled with disgust than she had ever turned on me. A smile spread unbidden on my lips as I watched her take a deep breath and then step into the mud, sinking down several inches and her entire body shuddered in revulsion. To my surprise though she determinedly walked to her starting position with Piplup trudging behind her and her Cutiefly sitting on her head.

The first round was boys against boys and girls against girls. Dawn's opponent sent out her Machop from the dance round, but sent out a Sandile for her second pokemon and I wondered if she would automatically get extra points for having a ground type pokemon. Torterra and I watched from the back of the crowd. To my surprise when the time started Dawn immediately ordered her Cutiefly to use double team and then to aim it's Fairy Wind at the mud in front of her opponent.