The Road to our Destiny

Chapter 26

"And now, let's start off with the winner of the Saffron City contest, Serena!" Lilian announces.

Ash, Brock, and Pikachu all stand up and cheer for Serena as loudly as possible. Serena enters the stage waving at the crowd with a bright smile before taking out her Pokeball.

"Sylveon, come on out and use Double Team," she commands.

Sylveon comes out or its Pokeball, and with a cute smile, it uses Double Team, creating a dozen copies of the fairy Pokemon.

"Now project yourself into the air using Fairy Wind," Serena says.

The group of Sylveon all jump into the air doing twists and flips before they pull their feelers together, and the air around them starts to glow blue. Then right as they about to land on the ground face first, they spread their feelers wide open causing a strong gust of wind that propels them higher into the air. The crowd gasps in awe as the combination of Fairy Wind creates several pink, sparkling dust all over the stage.

"Now use Swift," Serena says.

The Sylveon fires multiple golden stares at the center of the stage. The stars explode on impact creating golden fireworks. The judges and the audience gasp in amazement as the fireworks disappear to reveal only one Sylveon making a pose with Serena.

"Ta-da! All done!" Serena says.

The crowd applauds, and Serena's heart feels warm at the sight of so many people happy with her performance. She turns to Sylveon and kneels down to hug her Pokemon. Sylveon hugs her back with its feelers before the two exit the stage.

"Wow, that performance was so awesome," Ash says.

"Yeah, Serena really worked hard on it with Sylveon," Brock agrees.

The performances go on for twenty minutes, with many other coordinators performing with their Pokemon. Most of them give entertaining performances while a few of them awkwardly messed up on their routine. Finally, Lilian comes up to announce the final competitor.

"Last but not least, making her debut right here in Celadon City, give it up for Giselle!" She says.

The audience gives Giselle a respectable applause as she enters the stage waving at them with a proud smile. Even Ash and Brock clap modestly as she tosses a Pokeball into the air.

"Marowak, go!" she shouts.

The open to reveal a Marowak appears looking more ready for battle than performing.

"Hey, is that Marowak the Cubone Pikachu and I battled against when we were at Pokemon Tech?" Ash asks.

"I think it is," Brock says. "She did mention that she has a Marowak at Erika's store. Guess she got to keep some of the Pokemon she used at that school."

"Marowak, use Boomerang!" Giselle commands.

Marowak throws its bone into the air, and it spins high up above the audience before it loops around and heads back to its owner.

"Now hit it with Fire Punch," Giselle says.

"What?!" Ash and Brock shout simultaneously.

Marowak makes a fist, and its hand catches fire before it punches it bone right as it was about to come back to it. The impact causes the bone to catch fire and spin above the audience again before it comes back to Marowak, who repeats the process. The crowd watches the fiery bone fly above their heads, amazed by the spectacle. Marowak continues to hit its bone with Fire Punch until Giselle speaks again.

"Now catch your bone and then use Fire Blast!" She shouts.

"Fire Blast?!" Ash and Brock exclaim.