Chapter 2: It Takes Two to Tangelo

Matt tosses his newly acquired Pokeball in his hand before standing up with a grin "I dunno, I kinda like the idea of making a king wait. But, I guess you're right, we should get going"

He stretches back before placing the Drilbur on his belt "I wonder what the rules for the battle are going to be"

Leaving the Pokemon Center, our trio was able to make their way to the Battle Stadium--and what a Stadium it was! You saw it well before you got there. The massive structure resembled a gladiatorial colosseum more than a pokemon battle arena.

At the entrance there were two lines--those for tickets, and those without. The line for those without tickets was easily a hundred people long...the other line--your line--was nonexistent. Walking right up to the attendant, he scanned your tickets, pushing a few buttons on his console, and handing you back your tickets.

"Welcome to the Battle Stadium!," he said in a voice that oozed with enthusiasm--the kind you have to pay for. "Please follow the hallway behind me to the common area, where you should be able to find your party. Your Battle number is #426, found printed on your ticket. When the number before yours is called, you will be asked to enter the staging area, and after their battle is concluded, your battle will begin! Inside the staging area, make sure to enter any names you would like to be introduced as in the console found there, and our announcers will do their best to accommodate you," he said. "Best of luck, and have a pleasant battle!"

With that, he unhooked a rope and allowed you to enter the Battle Stadium. The interior, much like the exterior, was designed like a Colosseum, with great stone sculptures of pokemon in heroic poses lining the walls or serving as pillars. After a short distance the room opened up into a large common area with easily twenty or thirty people waiting inside. As you came in, you heard a familiar vote call from your right.

"Hey!  Matt, Julie, Steven!  Glad you made it!," the King of the Safari Zone's Trainer, Joey, called.  He walked over, two young boys following behind him.

The first boy ran up past Joey, greeting you enthusiastically and hugging you each around the neck without much chance to refuse.  "Oooh, it's so nice to meet ~chu!  Joey was telling us all about ya from the Safari Zone!," the boy said with entirely too much excitement and enthusiasm.



"I hope you're ready for our battle, and don't be shocked when we win! I'm not gonna take it easy on ya just cuz we only just met," he said, putting up his fists in a mock fighting stance and winking at Matt.

"I'm sorry about him...," the other boy said in a more reserved tone.  "My name's Jimmy.  It's really nice to meet you all," he said with a polite bow.



"Oh, right!  And I'm Kuna!," the excited one said.

"So, you guys ready for our battle?," Joey asked eagerly. "I signed us up for three pokemon each, I hope that's alright," he said, clearly eager himself.

Julie looks around the massive battle stadium, her eyes wide at the scale of it all. They really didn't mess around on Tangelo...

As Joey calls out to them, Julie raises her right hand in greeting, still cradling Demi in her left. As she watches the pikachu boy assault Steven in a hug, her face wrinkles up in disgust. As she sees him turn towards her next, she very quickly raises up a hand, ready to push him away if she has to. "Please don't touch me, I'm feeling a bit sick."

Then, she gives a small up nod to Jimmy. "I'm Julie." Otherwise she stays quiet, waiting for the battle to begin.

"Ooh, but hugs make everything better...," Kuna said sadly. He would've been pouting if Julie hadn't stiff-armed him, giving his face a squished appearance.

"Bul, huh? Well Buddy, Beaux, Mary and me won't be BUL-lied!," Kuna said, recovering quickly and giving Matt what could best be described as angry...although it was the kind of angry look a toddler gave an adult, and it didn't last long.

"Looks like you've got your team picked out already...as usual...," Jimmy said, shaking his head. He looked at Matt. "Don't you worry about that. We're no slouches like Joey and...Your Majesty...over...here...," he said, sniggering and suppressing a laugh.

Joey was beat red. "Yeah, laugh it up guys! We'll see who's laughing after our battle!," he said, clearly still embarrassed that he'd been caught playing with his pokemon in such a childish way.

"Anyway, it's good to meet you guys--Steven, Matt, Julie. There's one group up before us, and we'll have access to their staging areas before that. They try and make it as close as possible to official Pokemon League matches. It's pretty cool."

"Mmhmm, it's suuuper cool! You guys are gonna just love it! And there are people watching up in the stands, and even VIP boxes sometimes! It's really over-the-top!," Kuna said, his anger vanishing and being replaced almost instantaneously with enthusiasm once again.

"So yeah, why don't we get to know each other a little before the match? Where are you guys fro~?," Joey started to ask, but was interrupted by an announcer coming over an intercom.

"Attention Trainers! Battle number 424 has just concluded, and battle number 425 will be beginning shortly! All participants in battle number 426 please begin to make you way to your designated staging area, printed on your tickets! Once again,..." the announcer repeated. Checking your tickets, you saw 'Staging Room B' printed on them.

"Well, I guess that's us," Jimmy said. "See ya on the battlefield!"

With similar well wishes, Joey, Jimmy, and Kuna departed. As you all made your way to Staging Room B, you were met with a rather utilitarian space, similar to a gym locker room. There were lockers to hang excess clothes in, should you need to, as well as a terminal in the room. The terminal seemed to indicate that each of you would need to register three pokemon to participate in the battle--no more, no less. There was also an 'Introductions' text box, although there was no description for this text box and it was left blank.

Julie's head spins as Matt begins to talk in the staging room, and similarly her mind is spinning trying for figure out what pokemon to use. When Matt finally stops and gives her a chance to speak up, she speaks slowly, considering her options. "Alright, so the pokemon I have available to me are Tear, Cloak the Sewaddle, Demi the Petilil, Pidove, Hippopotas, and the Makuhita I just traded for. I also have the Starly, but he's in the box at the moment. I'm definitely going to use Tear. Cloak is rather useless right now, so he's out. Demi could be used, but I've been relying on her a lot recently, so I'd like to use someone else if possible, if we need a grass type though, I can use her. Pidove, Hippopotas, and Makuhita could all be used, depending on what types we want. I know Pidove has a dark type move that can hit multiple enemies, but she's also the weakest of the three. So... what do you guys think?" She looks mainly at Matt as she says this, a little bit lost in the current situation.

Matt placed his hand on his chin "Alright, so Steven is bringing Fighting, and Grass and Poison at minimum. What about the Blitzle? That way we have something for Flying Types at minimum. Just an idea"

Raising an eyebrow, he continued "And Tear is a water type so that'll be good if they throw out Fire. I know you don't want to use her, but Demi might come in handy with her status moves, especially since I don't really bring any of that to the table myself. I also think the Makuhita could be helpful, more Fighting is never a bad thing, especially since we know that at minimum they have the Ratatta. But that's just my thoughts"

He reached down to his belt and nodded "I think I've decided on going with the Sandshrew for now, mostly because it has a nasty combo with Defense Curl and Rollout, so he should be able to knock some hard damage even though I haven't worked with him much. And he has a little Range and coverage."

He looks to his teammates "What do you think?"

Matt raised an eyebrow at the Slugma comment before shrugging and trusting Stevens intuition "Well, if he's bringing a Slugma then Tear and the Sandshrew will come in handy for sure. And maybe you should bring the Hippopatas instead Julie, another Ground type won't be bad if they're bringing Fire and Electric"

He holds his choices in front of himself "Yeah, I think I'm pretty set on these three, even with Stevens gut calls. I think we can do this guys" He grins to his friends and waits for them to make their choices

Steven nods. "That's cool, that's cool. I'll be using Victor then, get some lightning on the field ourselves." He, too, walks over to the machine to lock in his picks.

As Julie steps out into the battle arena, she blinks in surprise at the sheer size and scale of the place. She had realized it was going to be a big deal, but not this big! And this was her first trainer battle of her career too... She fidgets nervously as the pressure mounts.

As their opponents released their pokemon, Julie's heart sank even further. If she was reading things right, these were all electric types, something two of her pokemon were weak to. She had expected at least some from the annoying one, but this was a bit excessive, wasn't it?

With a deep breath, Julie tries to clear her thoughts, closing her eyes. She reaches to her side and fidgets with Tear's pokeball for comfort before shifting to Demi's pokeball. She opens her eyes makes sure to look only at the battlefield, not at the crowd. Then, she draws Demi's pokeball and releases her in a further back position, saying quietly, "It's all you, Demi."