Pokemon Shine Diamond

[EmeraldSky]

@Scytherwolf; @Soups;

Episode 10: Mastering a Coordinated Assault

As crowds began filling into the Contest Hall the next day, they did not notice a red haired woman and a purple haired woman in futuristic silver, white, and black garb watching them from behind a small grove of trees. "Admin Mars to Supreme Leader Cyrus, we are here in Jubilife City now." the red haired woman said into a watch-like communicator on her left arm.

"Excellent--remember that your only goal for now is to observe in the city, and find any threats to our goal of a new world." an older male voice crackled back through Mars' communicator. "It would be wise for you and Jupiter to have a disguise to avoid detection."

"We already have disguises and some alter egos in mind." the purple haired woman assured the image of a blue haired man on the tiny communicator screen. "Mars is going undercover as a Coordinator, and I'm going undercover as a Loremistress."

"A wise choice. Jubilife has its own Contest Hall, and the Fantasy Stage is often held in conjunction with Contests." the man explained. "So you should have no trouble blending in."

He added. "In case you do find threats to our plan, you have my permission to pursue them, if they manage to outwit you or get away."

"Understood, boss--Mars out." Mars replied before her transmission ended. "Well, let's get into our alter egos' costumes."

"Here's mine..." Jupiter paused to dig out a majestic white, blue, purple and green minstrel's costume from a plastic bag.

"And here's mine." Mars showed her partner a lovely red and white costume with silver diamond patterns. "If you look at it at the right angle, the diamonds form Mars symbols."

"Very clever." Jupiter smiled before ducking into a comfort station to change.

Once both admins emerged in their costumes, Mars told Jupiter "Remember--my alter ego's name is Marta Bryant."

"Haven't thought of a last name for mine yet, but my alter ego's first name is Juno." Jupiter replied. "Let's move out."

With that, both admins went their separate ways. Mars hurried into the Contest Hall, and Jupiter towards the outdoor theater where the Fantasy Stage was taking place.

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Meanwhile, in the Pokemon Center, Dawn emerged from a dressing room. She finished tying a pink ribbon in her hair, then addressed the boys. "What do you think?" she asked as she revealed the pink gown she wore to the boys and Tintri.

"Wow!" Ash cried, impressed at Dawn's look.

"You look beautiful!" Brock smiled.

"Can you turn a little bit for me?" the image of Joanna on a nearby videophone requested.

Dawn nodded, and performed an elegant twirl before the videophone. "Thanks so much for rushing this costume here, Mom." she began.

"You're welcome, sweetie pie." Joanna replied before noticing something. "Although, I see you're missing the matching choker."

Dawn felt around her neck and discovered nothing was there. "That's funny...it was there when I took it out of the box..."

A meow got her attention. "Opal?" she gasped as a Glameow approached the group.

"Opal?" Ash asked, intrigued in the gray cat Pokemon with a coiled tail.

"My pet Glameow at home." Dawn explained. "But this one's a bit darker compared to Opal."

Piqued, Ash read up on the gray cat Pokemon:

"Glameow, the catty Pokemon. When it's happy, it demonstrates beautiful movements of its tail, like a dancing ribbon."

He smiled as the Glameow swished its tail before Dawn. "Well! Seems this Glameow found your choker." Joanna smiled as Dawn took the tourmaline choker from the Glameow's tail.

"Can you tell me where your master is, so I can thank them?" Dawn asked the Glameow.

The Glameow looked up and meowed as a girl with a pair of sunglasses perched in her short wavy hair arrived. "Oh, you found the choker's owner, Sylvie?" she asked as she brushed some sandwich crumbs from her shirt and vest.

"Yes--that choker was mine." Dawn replied as she put it on. "Thank you..." She realized she had not asked the girl her name.

"Name's Zoey." the girl smiled. "...and my partner, Sylvie." she added, petting the Glameow. "Sylvie found that choker on the floor last night, and you were the only one wearing anything that would go with it."

"Thanks for finding it, Zoey." Dawn smiled. She wanted to get to know Zoey more, but balked when she saw both Zoey and Sylvie had departed.

"Don't worry--you'll get a chance to see her again." Joanna assured Dawn. "Good luck in the Contest!"

It dawned on Ash that if the Contest and the Fantasy Stage were taking place at the same time. I can't be in two places at once...

"How am I gonna cheer both you and Brock on if both events are happening at the same time?" he asked.

"If you need to miss one of the events to see Brock, I'll understand." Dawn replied.

"Well, I'm on after this lady named Juno, and then Nando is on after me." Brock replied.

"So if you time it right, the Dance part of the contest should be over or be close to ending." Dawn explained. "Let's go!"

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..."Entry number J-495901--Dawn Solberg and Kori!" the emcee announced as Dawn and Kori emerged from the entry tunnel for the parade of contestants. "Dawn is the daughter of legendary Coordinator Joanna Solberg. It will be exciting to see how she carries on the family legacy!"

In the stands, Ash looked over the other contestants. "Okay, we have Marta, who has a Bronzor..." he mused as the disguised Mars passed by the left end of the stands. "Some guy with a Mightyena..." he mused as the second contestant passed by. "Zoey, from earlier..." he noted as Zoey, now in an elegant pantsuit, walked by with Sylvie. "...and Dawn." He waved as Dawn passed by.

Once all four contestants had returned, the emcee explained the rules of the Visual competition. "Our first event today is the Visual competition. In the dressing rooms, where you'll find a fashion case filled with a hundred random accessories. Your job is to choose up to five of them that creates a coherent look based on a theme in sixty seconds."

He added "The order that you finish here will determine the order for the next event."

Once sure the four contestants had no questions, he revealed the theme. "You're aiming for a colorful look this time."

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"Colorful, huh?" Dawn mused as she opened the fashion case. She balked at the various puffballs, feathers, jewels, scales, and other trinkets inside. "How am I supposed to get a coherent look out of this?"

Her heart raced when she saw a clock in the room blip to life with sixty seconds. "Ready...set...GO!" she heard the emcee say.

[No one told me we were being timed!] Kori panicked as she watched the numbers tick away on the clock.

"Come here, Kori...I have an idea." Dawn motioned for Kori to come to her. She then proceeded to stick a blue puffball near Kori's head, some white ones near her stomach, and some blue ones on her fins. "There..."

[I look like a clown...] Kori sighed as the clock expired.

"Well, a clown is colorful, right?" Dawn assured Kori as she watched the crowd ooh and ah over Mars' glittering Bronzor. "This Marta girl knows what she's doing."

[Zoey's not too shabby herself.] Kori smiled as Zoey emerged from the dressing room next to her, the jewels in Sylvie's fur glittering in the lights.

"Next is Kori!" she heard the emcee announce, to laughter and "aw"s over Kori's look when she emerged from the dressing room.

[Not bad for her first try.] Tintri smiled as Kori posed cutely for the judges.

"Yeah...she'll get better at this the more Contests she competes in." Ash agreed.

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Awed chatter filled the hall as a large black platform with lights and smoke jets around it rose up from the floor. "Wow...I can't believe they were able to put that beneath the floor..." Ash gasped, amazed at the platform's size.

[Looks like a Dancing Star platform turned up to 11...] Tintri was equally impressed.

"Next is the Dance competition." the emcee explained. "Before you is the Bailatron, a state of the art dancing platform inspired by video games such as Dancing Star. But rather than stomping on pre-determined arrows to the beat, you'll be making up your own steps."

This got the crowd excited. "The order our contestants will dance in is determined by how well they did in the Visual competition."

He reminded the coordinators "Remember, the Bailatron will record every stumble and fall, too. Mess up too often, and you're out of competition."

He then told the audience. "Let's give our coordinators a minute to choose the songs they will dance to..."

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"Hm..." Dawn mused as she perused the massive song list. Every so often, she glanced at the screen displaying what was going on in the Contest Hall. "What song would Kori like most..."

The familiar introduction of the Macarena and the crowd cheering snapped her to attention. [I didn't know the Macarena was a Dancing Star song!] Kori gasped. On the screen, hundreds of people did the classic dance in the stands as Mars' Bronzor spun, whirled and warped about the platform in time to the pounding beat.

"It's on some of the console versions, most famously on 'Dancing Star Disney Beat'." Dawn explained. She stiffed a giggle at Ash and Tintri doing the dance in the stands before turning her attention to the music player holding the song list.

She smiled as the Bailatron reset for Sylvie to dance. "Wonder what Zoey picked for Sylvie to dance to?"

A blaring rock melody answered her question. The crowd roared as Sylvie elegantly twisted and jumped across the platform. Granted, she didn't understand a word of the Japanese lyrics, but Sylvie looked like she was having the time of her life grooving to the beat.

[Dawn...] Kori whispered. [May I have the song selector? I know exactly what I want to dance to!]

"Here." Dawn handed Kori the song selector. "What song do you want to dance to?"

Kori smiled as she showed Dawn the song she had picked--"Hero". [I want to dance to "Hero"--you did great on that song on the Dancing Star machine yesterday.]

"Okay...you can dance to 'Hero'." Dawn assured Kori as she watched Sylvie strike a confident pose as her song ended...

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"Dawn's up next..." Ash mused as the Bailatron rest for Kori's performance. "Although Sylvie did great with 'Break Down'..."

[Come on, Kori!] Tintri called as Kori hopped aboard the platform. Ash whistled in encouragement as the lights dimmed, signalling Kori's performance was about to begin.

Kori struck a cute pose, then skipped and twirled across the platform in time to the song...

In the middle of the night my hero comes to rescue.
He's so fine, I'm gonna make him mine.
He's sincere, I know his heart is beating
just for me, only for me.

But at the break of dawn he is gone.... Kori posed in time to the singer on the phrase "he is gone."

The wind has carried him awa-a-a-y... Kori did a graceful aerial twirl at this line.
And like a comet on the sky
he will return someday!

[Kori's doing great down there!] Tintri smiled. He watched as Kori twirled and swayed through the rainbow lights whorling around her.

"I think I know why Dawn picked that song..." Ash smiled. "She wanted to evoke our own dancing to it on the Dancing Star machine yesterday." He let that hang as he returned to watching Kori, who was enthralled by jumping, twisting, and twirling through the wave of rainbow lights around her...

A-la-di-da-da
You are my hero.
A-la-di-da-da
Ohhhh..
A-la-di-da-da
You are my hero.
A-la-di-da-da
Ohhhh..
A-la-di-da-da
You are my hero.
A-la-di-da-da...

The crowd roared as Kori struck a triumphant pose at the song's end. [Way to go, Kori!] Tintri called as he applauded. Kori took an exhausted bow for the cheering crowd, then hurried off to reunite with Dawn.

Ash was stunned as Kori's results appeared on the leaderboard. "Wow! Kori's the best one so far!"

[She even beat Sylvie.] Tintri agreed.

With the lull in the competition, Ash motioned for Tintri to follow him to the exit. "Come on, bud--let's go see how Brock is doing in his Fantasy Stage debut so far."

To Be Continued...