"Thank ya kindly." Doug said to the receptionist as he grabbed the pass, waving at her before quickly walking past the security guard.

This was one of his precious vacations days; he wanted to make the most of it.

The heels of his dressing shoes released echoing clicks with each step he took down the long, dark corridor, until he emerged at the center of the arena.

A spotlight suddenly flashed on, and Doug's threw an arm in front of his face as he flinched, his gaze slowly clearing to reveal...

One of his favorite coordinators.

"Indeed! It is I!" Doug suddenly intoned dramatically, crossing his arms over his chest with a smile, tipping down his straw hat so that the spotlight shining above would cast a deep shadow over his gaze.

"Straight outta Kanto, the man who grew up appreciating the intrinsic and superior beauty of Insects! Tough, fair, a jungle expert! It is Hoenn's leading Bug-type Expert!"

Doug spun in place before posing, a single hand extending skyward sharply, two pokeballs flying in the air and releasing both of his pokemon.

"John Douglas Sullivan!"

A lightning bolt flashed through the arena as his Ledian swung a Thunder Punch at the air with enough speed to produce a booming echo, the sound accompanied by the dramatic notes of a string orchestra.

The Kricketune slowly removed its bow-like arms from its stomach, bowing low to Melody Miro.

Doug held the dramatic pose for about 10 seconds, letting it all sink in before lowering a hand to point it at Melody.

"And indeed, you lost that one." He said, before shrugging and breaking the illusion. "Don't feel too bad though; the winner found a miracle of nature in a Biome Contest, it was almost impossible to top."

But that wasn't what they were here for. The youth began walking forward

"But this ain't 'bout that, is it?" He said, crossing his arms over his chest and grinning, his Ledian mirroring him as it fluttered behind him, crossing all four of its arms. "When I heard ya were the new Gym Leader, I just had to come check things out."

He made a show of looking about furtively for sneaks and eavesdrops, before leaning in lowly and holding a hand besides his mouth...

And then he spoke loud and clear enough to be heard, making it pointless.

"It's a secret to everyone, but..." With a flick of his wrist, he produced a special looking badge from his sleeve. "As a new Gym Leader too, I felt I should be the first one to congratulate 'cha, since we're in the same boat."

With another flick, he slipped it back into his sleeve, before leaning back and winking at her.

"But keep it a secret, eh? My installations ain't ready just yet." He was taking his sweet time, despite his best efforts. "I admire the quickness with which you up your gym. But enough about that!"

"Let's battle!"

---

Melody let out a good loud slow clap at john douglas, she loved the confidence he was oozing at the moment. Gym leaders should be that, shining beacons of behavior for the people of Hoenn who so desperately needed a pillar to lean on at the moment. His Pokémon also received their own special spotlights for this fight as they made their flourishes known, melody observed them pretty closely and saw it was obvious he took very good care of his pokemon. "I wonder what kind of rhythm you're Pokémon will have with you. Oooo my fingers are starting to feel electric." as she sat down on the chair for the piano, she lifted the case gently at first and pressed a few keys at first and played lightly before stopping as John Douglas said the famous words. "Lets battle." She raised her right hand and with a snap of her fingers suddenly the lights all switched on in the arena as it appeared that a crowd had been watching the pair the entire time in awe of the two and an orchestra in the stands besides her began to play as well. "Very well! I accept your challenge!"

She pushed the tails of her dress with a dramatic flair as it revealed a belt with her pokeballs on it as she tossed out a pokemon. The Genre he selected was classical, so a Pokémon who'd fit that theme would have been... Her Primarina! Primarina's were known as soloists pokemon and what better could accompany classical styled music than beautiful opera singing? "Primarina! Start off with misty terrain!" she commanded as Primarina began to sing a note and a pink mist began to ooze from it's body covering the floor of the arena. "Now quickly before he gets a chance to react, moon blast!" she ordered as primarina moved to the music and launched a ball of fae energy towards his pokemon of choice.

Doug's arm rose in the air while the other folded over his chest, his heels coming together as he once again posed dramatically, a smile spreading wide over his lips as Melody Miro's digits fleeted over the piano's keys.

"Can see it... Can't delay! Merodin, take the stage!" He ordered, swiping his arm across the air, prompting his bug Violinist to leap into action, its body pirouetting through the air before it landed in front of its trainer, folding a blade arm across its stomach before bowing low. "Strings, Merodin!"

Its arms slid over its stomach like bows, a sound akin to violins rising through the air and joining the piano and orchestra.

With the music set, the battle began in earnest, the field being flooded in a pinkish haze of mist... and a ball of fae force launched at the Kricketune!

"Dodge it and let 'er know that-" He ordered, his Kricketune's tiny legs compressing under it before it suddenly launched side ways and off the balls path, its impact with the floors whipping up a dust cloud. "Yer solo's just begun!"

Rolling across the floor and to its feet, the Kricketune brought its crossed arms across its stomach in a sharp motion, swiftly swiping them over and over again, a flurry of violin notes whipping away the dust nearby, the sound waves rocketing towards the Primarina to blow her away.

---

Kricketune dodged!
Kricketune used Bug Buzz! Bug Buzz has a 10% of lowering Special Defense!
R6T8Nza8

It was during battles like this that melody kept in mind her nickname in Lilycove, La Maestra Conductora. The song changed slightly and Melody's Primarina recognized it and acted accordingly. Melody shared a special bond with her Pokémon via music and at times it seemed like she spoke to them through it. They were able to pick up on the slightest changes and alterations, the speeds and adjustments and act accordingly. Each battle was a performance and it was quite evident in the theatrics of her battles. However she was impressed that John Sullivan was able to communicate similarly to his kricketune from the looks of it.

Primarina's cheeks seemed to becoming full of something as she saw the bug buzz coming her way and decided to fire a hyper voice right back at the sound to try and drown it out. However Bug buzz seemed to be more powerful and won out in the battle of volume due to merodin's affinity to bug type attacks. Melody lowered her headset to speak into the speakers over the music "Very nice shot! However that's not our only way to deal with a noisy viola." she said as the piano playing picked up a bit. As the song picked up so did Primarina, and the misty surge began to become thicker and thicker. It would be a bit harder to see Primarina now and melody took advantage of that to issue her next move. Merodin would be able to begin hearing a beautiful opera styled singing from Primarina as it began to use the move sparkling aria to shoot bubbles into the mist to try and land some hits on Merodin.

"Nice playin'!" Doug said with a grin as Kricketune managed to drown out the Hyper Voice, pumping a fist.

The diminished attack probably hadn't dealt a whole lot of damage, but first 'blood' wasn't too shabby.

Unfortunately, 'Misty Terrain' had begun living up to its name, the mist thickening until even what was right in front of you became completely undiscernible. Not ideal... specially when the enemy had something like the Primarina's Sparkling Aria!

"Let 'er run the show for a bit!" Doug said as he tried to swipe at the mist in front of him. No dice; he couldn't see crap. "A prima donna should be heard from any point in the hall!"

Merodin's arms were raised up as its body hunkered down, trying to make himself as small a target as possible while guarding his vitals. Water splashed around him sharply as the Sparkling Aria threw explosive water bubbles everywhere around the arena.

POP!

The Kricketune bit down its own cry as one hit him in the back while it was hunkered down, leaving an ironically searing pain along its chitinous behind.

But... he could hear her clearly. He had no sight, but a musician's trained hearing was their must trusted sense was anyway.

"That's quite the singing voice! It's enough to make one jealous, ain't it, Merodin?!" Doug shouted into the mist.

His legs already bent underneath him, the Kricketune's gaze sharpened as he brought both arms in front of himself, glowing neon heat gathering around the bladed edges...

Before he launched himself forward, taking great strides as he charged towards the Primarina's voice, blades held point first like glowin, neon green drills!

---

Merodin took damage from Sparkling Aria!
Merodin is charging towards Primarina's beautiful voice! He's utilizing Fury Cutter & Fell Stinger together!

tag: Melody Miro

"Thank you. Year's of practice and dedication."  she said with a small smile on her face as a small smug look came across it. If there was one thing melody loved it was receiving compliments, she thrived off of this kind of attention its what motivated her a lot of the time.

From the sounds coming from within the misty terrain melody figured her attack landed on the Kricketune. "Good job prim! Wonderful execution and tempo!" she said as prima let out a happy cry as well before refocusing on the fight. Melody was glad to see so far that john was also speaking to his Pokémon and connecting with them. it was extremely important to her to treat Pokémon with love and care and push them beyond their limits and john was doing pretty good so far, no wonder he was chosen to be a gym leader hmm? Well enough complimenting the opponent! Melody had to beat him!

As she opened her eyes melody saw that there was a green light emanating from the pink mist and Primarina seemed to also notice as well. Melody's piano playing changed a bit once again and Primarina moved accordingly once more. Primarina once in the air aimed an icy wind at the Pokémon below "green with envy are we?  Strike your own tune!" she commented cheekily as she tried to hint that the green glow gave away his position in the mist.

Primarina's blast of icy wind was fired at the target below hoping it lands and slows the Kricketune down as his speed was going to be pretty tricky to deal with. Hopefully putting him on ice worked and the concert could continue without a hitch.

"Definitely's worked!" He said, his voice echoign through the mist. He had thought the mist would cover their approach, but as it turned out... "Ah shit."

Unfortunately, the mist was not thick enough to cover for the glow as well. Fortunately, the Kricketune's trained ear could keep track of the Primarina's alluring voice well enough.

Unfortunately again, hearing was not seeing; he knew where she was. He did not know what she was doing.

Crossing his bladed arms over his head, the Kricketune's legs compressed tightly before he launched himself sharply towards his airborne opponent. No easier target, right?

Kinda.

A shrill screech left the Kricketune as the Icy Wind, layers of frost forming over his joints and eating away at his stamina as he flew towards her, unleashing a pained, booming sound around it unwittingly.

It whipped at the cloud of mist around them, creating a mistless bubble inside the terrain and revealing them to each other.

---

-Kricketune has taken damage from the Icy Wind. Parts of his body have been covered in frost, lowering his agility.
-Kricketune is attacking the airborne Primarina with a Fell Stinger.
-Kricketune has unleashed an unwitting, booming Bug Buzz. Within a limited bubble, the misty terrain is no longer blocking either pokemon's sight of each other.

tag: Melody Miro

Yes! Primarina's attack managed to land, Kricketune's advantage over speed slowly vanished as he was a much more nimble Pokémon when compared to Primarina. However the Icy wind helped close that gap a bit thankfully, however melody's positioning that she thought would give her the advantage with her attack became an opening for Kricketune. 'crap' she thought to herself as the Kricketune leapt to slice at Primarina with fell stinger, the Pokémon's attack landed and primarina let out a cry as she was flung further into the air.

She crashed to the floor, melody stopping the song momentarily. "Primarina! Are you ok?" as the misty terrain cleared a bit from the landing zone. Primarina was on the floor but got back up brushing off the crash. Melody let out a sigh "What an interlude...you scared me there!" as Primarina looked apologetically "Can you keep going?" she asked as Primarina nodded her head in understanding.

Melody sat back down on the piano "It's time for a change of pace, don't you agree Mr.john Douglas?" she asked as the previous song at ended at quite the convenient time. Melody started it off with quite the peaceful little tune before melody gave a smug look to john Douglas as she started to completely shred it on the piano. Primarina looked like a fire in it's eyes had been lit as the bug buzz was still clearing out the mist between the two, a sound based attack would just get cancelled out by bug buzz and in addition to that Misty terrain was going to end soon due to john douglas's attack dispersing it, if kricketune had moves that applied status effects he might use them soon enough. No way he was going to get that opening. The song altered slightly in the rhythm and primarina moved in tune with it and launched a hydro pump at kricketune.

"I most certainly agree." Doug said, wishing he had brought his fiddle as a nice, soft tune that most definitely did not fit the battle going on filled the arena.

And then the pinkette just started shredding on the bloody Piano, the keys echoing rapidly in the air as the orchestra behind her fell in line.

Kicking it up a gear now that Merodin was slowed down, huh?

"Oh shoot, this tempo ain't gonna be helping us at all, Mero!" Doug said while grinning, sweat rolling down his cheeks.

A Hydro Pump now?!

"Shut it all out! Louder, Louder!" He ordered, his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting!

The Kricketune, rocked its own knife hands along its stomach furiously, its booming Bug Buzz reverberating explosively around it.

The sound waves were like a barrier against the Hydro Pump as they rose over the music, but in the end, there simply was not enough power behind them to stop it in its tracks!

A screech left the Kricketune as the Hydro Pump powered through the sonic barrier and slammed onto it, taking it off its feet and sending it hurtling several feet back, its body bouncing along the floors before its knife arm snapped down, grinding audibly against them as it brought itself to a dramatic stop.

The pokemon huffed, breathing ragged as water dripped off its form, eyes narrowed at its opponent.

Doug swiped his thumb underneath his nose, huffing.

"Jeez, no appreciation 'round here! Let'er know what'cha think of her singing, Mero!"

In response, Merodin did an inappropriate gesture before riffing with its bow arms loudly and dissonantly, like an orchestral violinist willfully ruining the performance for his companions.

---

-Drowns the music with a booming Bug buzz, trying to utilize it to block the Hydro Pump.
-Gets bitch slapped with Hydro Pump anyway.
-Merodin flips off Primarina and her singing before riffing an insulting ballad! He's using Taunt!

tags: Melody Miro

Woah was he trying to drown out her music? What foul play! This was HER concert! She did admire their tenacity so far however despite all of the things happening to them they were both still on the same page, nice. However fighting against the music was going to prove fatal, this was her world and those opposing it would quickly make the pair fall drown in the soundwaves. It seemed like Merodin was UPSET now, it launched a taunt at Primarina, to which the Pokémon did not take kindly to it. She raised a flipper to her mouth and gasped and began to shout back at it "Prim PRIM!" yelped out loud at Kricketune as it slammed it's fins on the floor EXTREMELY pissed off. "youch." melody muttered to herself.

Crap, she was locked out of misty terrain now and would be susceptible to status effects now. He seemed intent on ruining the concert now, rage rose in Melody as she was NOT taking kindly to it, did the taunt work on her as well? How dare he try to ruin her concert! Melody slammed down on the keys as Primarina responded to the cue, the Primarina gathered a ball of the icy wind and flung it right at Kricketune, and her rage wasn't going to let that be the only other attack, she stood in the same place as before as melody also played the key letting Primarina know to use sparkling aria to fire a barrage of bubbles in the shape of music notes at Kricketune as well. She felt like Kricketune might be in a pickle soon and there was no way she's letting up.

The taunt was more effective than he would have dared hope- perhaps a little too much, even.

"Oh, she didn't like that." Doug muttered as the Primarina slapped her fins to the floor and shouted at his Kricketune loudly. He couldn't understand pokemonesse but he was certain the words being said were not PG.

Merodin certainly seemed properly incensed by them, ironically, and even the Gym Leader seemed to take offense, her playing gaining a rather intense edge as she and her Primarina went on the offensive.

Doug needed to utilize this chance now that it was here. 'Attack Attack Attack' would be the key to this one victory.

"They ain't the only ones with a temper, Merodin! Let's cut loose!" Roared the youth to his panting Kricketune, the pokemon reeling back his bow arm as glowing neon light flowed through the length of his arm and pooled at its edge, eyes narrowed as the ball of Icy Wind fast approached.

The energy tore bits and pieces at the remnant frost that covered the Kricketune's arm, but even then, the Kricketune did not delay its swing, not trusting itself for pinpoint accuracy while its speed was still compromised.

Swish! The Green Energy cleaved the ice ball in half, the parted frost flying past the bug as he flowed with the swing into a rotating step, the same arm maintaining its kinetic force as he spun, the energy around it pulsing and booming as it visibly grew in intensity... before it launched itself forward.

Straight into the Sparkling Aria's torrential waters

They slammed into his body, chipping away at Chitin and conciousness and slowing down his advance to a crawl as he wobbled on his feet, lids heavy as his conciousness faded in and out from the damage...

And then his foot came down firmly, the green glow around his arm bursting into a gleaming neon blade that hummed with the echoing voice of a thousand insects.

With a roar he swung the neon blade at the Primarina, launching the massive, humming blade.

And then he face planted onto the floor, unconscious.

---

-Used Fury Cutter to cut through the ice ball.
-Took the damage from Sparkling Aria. It + the earlier damage from Hydro Pump triggered Kricketune's ability, Swarm.
-Utilized Fury Cutter (which doubles in power when used consecutively) combined with the Swarm ability to unleash a last powerful move.
-Dropsdead.jpg; Kricketune Fainted!

tags: Melody Miro

Melody saw and witnessed the great feat of strength Kricketune gave for the finale of his performance. The ice ball split in two and luckily slide right past john Douglas to which even she was amazed. Bravo! However it was in that moment of the amazing feat that primarina was struck by awe, and also struck by the move fury cutter. The hit landed on Primarina as a cloud of smoke and dust landed on the creature blocking both trainer's vision of Primarina. After it settled, Primarina stood in the same spot to which melody stopped playing the music. She knew what it meant. Primarina's body was scratched up as she fell over to which melody descended the staircase that appeared in front of the stage and patted her Primarina's body as it meekly called to it's trainer. "Shhh my love you did great. Take a rest now and leave the rest to me ok? I'm very proud of you." as she took out her pokeball and recalled primarina. 

The rising diva spoke to her opponent once more "An amazing display john Douglas I'm sure you are very proud of your Pokémon, you two compliment one another very well. However I would suggest you don't try to ruin my song next time, you'll find the battle becomes a bit harder." he said clapping to applause while also giving him a death glare.  "Everyone please give it up for primarina and Merodin!" as the crowd cheered and roared applause for the two competitors. After the cheering died down Melody began to ascend the staircase as the steps slid back into the stage. "However ladies and gentlemen the show is NOT OVER YET!" She said as a music stand came out from the floor and her piano slowly faded into the stage. God she still got chills from being able to do that stuff. Melody tapped her baton on the stand as the floor began to peel back and reveal the ocean and then she pointed at the roof of the arena and the night sky began to reveal itself as the roof peeled away as well.

"Are you ready john douglas? The show has ONLY begun." she smiled at him as she awaited him to release his Pokémon, she had already known from his sign ups that he had selected. The show was soon going to reach it's peak.





John Sullivan