Unbroken Disguise

Being alone was hard.

Well, not alone alone, she still had her team with her all the time, but she missed having someone to talk to who could actually respond in a way she could fully understand.

And she hadn’t even left Hearthome yet.

The Hearthome City Pokemon Contest that Zoey had told her about was still a couple days away, so Dawn had been spending her time preparing routines with her team, trying to get into the best shape that they could before the real thing… but there was only so much practice you could do before it started driving you crazy.

So today, instead of going over her routine yet again, she found herself exploring the city. The park had been interesting, though she thought it was kind of weird that the workers wanted to inspect her Pokemon before letting them in. And then she had found a place that gave lessons on cooking poffins, so of course she had given that another try!

And she was glad that she did, because one of the instructors had shared a super interesting bit of information.

Super Contests.

She wasn’t sure how this was the first time she was hearing about them! With how crazy her mom was about contests, she would have thought… well, maybe the scale was just that different. Contests like the Wallace Cup or the Grand Festival were broadcasted on television, they were a big deal. These Super Contests though… she would have to investigate, since she didn’t know anything about them, but they couldn’t have been a thing since not even her mom had mentioned them before.

Supposedly they ran these Super Contests in the same Contest Hall that the Contest that she was familiar with was going to be held in, and so she entered the huge building expecting… hmmm… maybe a smaller crowd of coordinators? But not too small, otherwise why would they be called “Super” Contests? Honestly, if these ones were smaller, shouldn’t the “normal" Contests be the ones considered “Super”?

Her thoughts on the weird naming conventions vanished from her mind when she saw who was already there.

“...you can still talk a big game! But let me just remind you of how things turned out the last time, Ayako.”

“I don’t know Johanna, are you sure that you’re not past your prime and trying to hold on to past glory? I’d challenge you right now, but I wouldn’t want you to throw your hip out…”

“Oh! Yes, please! I’d give anything to see the two of you go head to head in person!”

It took Dawn’s brain a moment to reboot.

“...mom?” she barely got the word out.

The trio of women turned to her, two of them lighting up with bright smiles while the third cocked her head, her eyes darting between mother and daughter.

“Dawn! I was hoping I’d run into you at some point! How are you doing, sweetie?” Her mother was on her in an instant, moving to wrap her in a hug, but stopping halfway there, frozen.

“Johanna, what are you doing?” Ayako chided, moving in to give her a hug as well. She also froze, her hands shooting to her mouth as she gasped. “Oh dear…”

Dawn fought back the grimace, plastering on a smile.

Their eyes were on her leg. On her bandages. She’d been told they would be able to come off tomorrow, just in time for the Contest. She hadn’t expected to run into anyone she knew. Or at least, nobody who wasn’t there when she was injured.

“Hey mom, hello Mrs. Platinum,” Dawn greeted the two familiar women. “No need to worry! It’s basically healed already, so…”

Her mom ignored her words. She figured that would happen. Telling her that there was no need to worry was when she worried most, or so she liked to say. She very carefully pulled Dawn into a hug before starting her inspection for more wounds that she didn’t know about.

Luckily, the rest had healed already. There was nothing else to find anymore.

It did seem to work on Mrs. Platinum, though. Ayako was a very nice woman who lived near them in Twinleaf Town. Her neighbor let out a sigh of relief, relaxing a bit at Dawn’s reassurance.

Mrs. Platinum and her mom had an awful lot in common, so they were good friends, and Dawn had seen a lot of the women while growing up.

Though, maybe they had a bit too much in common, even if there were still plenty of differences. While the two of them had both gone on Pokemon journeys when they were young, nowadays her mom taught a coordinator class out of their home, while Mrs. Platinum was a stay-at-home mom. While they often got mistaken for twins, her mom had more of a dusty blue hue to her hair with nile blue eyes, often dressing in shades of orange, and Mrs. Platinum had more of a light navy blue hue to her hair with dusky blue eyes, often dressing in shades of pink. While they were both respected coordinators with strong teams, her mom had Glameow and Umbreon, while Ayako had… now that she thought about it, did Mrs. Platinum really only have Jumpy the Kangaskhan? That was the only Pokemon she remembered seeing at the Platinum house…

No, she needed to focus. She was only distracting herself from how awkward she felt, not her mom from the bandages.

Panicked, she turned to the stranger who was still standing off to the side, looking just as awkward as Dawn felt. “Um, I’m Dawn, and you are…?”

“Right!” The woman perked right up. “I’m Keira! I’m a Contest Judge for the Super Contests here. Are you….” the woman trailed off as her eyes focused on something behind Dawn. “Oh! My hero!”

When Dawn turned to see who Keira was talking about, she was surprised to see yet another familiar face. “Lucas?”

The boy waved in response, looking a bit distracted… and maybe a little bit damp? Strange.

“Oh, hi Lucas!” Ayako called out to her son. “Isn’t this something? Who would have thought we’d end up having a little Twinleaf get together all the way in Hearthome! Say, you wouldn’t happen to know where Barry is, would you, honey? It’s not quite the same without him causing a ruckus!”

Lucas shrugged, still not really paying attention.

“Wait! No! Really?!” Keira looked between the four Twinleaf residents, her eyes wide in astonishment. “Ayako is your mom? And if you’re Johanna’s daughter… am I looking at two contest stars right now?!”

Dawn felt like her blood went cold at those words, but she kept the smile plastered on her face. Luckily, her mom seemed to finally recompose herself at that point, but the look in her eyes said that there would be words about the injury later. “My little Dawn is turning out to be quite the coordinator! She’s only just started her journey, and she already managed to get a ribbon! I have high hopes for her.”

Dawn fought back the urge to wither under the expectations clear in the eyes of everyone there.

Just what she needed. More expectations. More pressure. More people to let down when she inevitably failed.

“Well, Dawn might have a bright future as a coordinator, but I’ve never really spoken to Lucas about contests,” Ayako chimed him. “I’m surprised you two know each other though…”

Keira’s eyes lit up again, and Dawn sagged a bit as all the attention was taken off of her. “Oh, yes, that’s right! I need to thank you for earlier. Please, take this accessory!” Dawn couldn’t make out what the woman shoved into Lucas’ hands. “Put that accessory on your Pokemon before a Super Contest, it will lend a nice touch of sophistication and glamour. I’m a Super Contest Judge, so come join us for a different kind of fun if that sounds interesting to you!”

Keira looked like she had more to say, and Lucas like he was never going to say anything, but Dawn couldn’t help but interrupt, especially after her last chance to ask about the topic had been cut off by Lucas’ arrival. “You’re a Super Contest Judge? Um, what exactly is a Super Contest?”

Mrs. Platinum rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Oh boy, now you’ve done it…”

“Oh, right! I can explain to both of you!” Keira all but shouted. “This is so exciting!”

Her mom sighed. “Super Contests are what happens when someone decides that the seasonal normal Contests aren’t enough.”

Keira pouted. “Why do you make it sound like I’m responsible? Though if they didn’t already exist, I probably would have made them a thing…” She giggled before moving on. “So! You’re doing the normal Contests, right Dawn? You get a pass to participate for the season, travel the region to collect ribbons from various cities and towns, and if you collect five of them, you can participate in the next Grand Festival!”

Dawn nodded along, with all of that information matching what she knew of contests.

“And that’s great!” Keira continued, “but it means a lot of travel, and that there aren’t many Contests in a year. Super Contests are the solution to that, designed to better fit the needs of the layman, though that’s not to say that there aren’t heights to reach for! Every Super Contest, at least here in the Sinnoh region, is held right here in Hearthome City! And they run daily! You could participate in one within the hour, if you wanted to! We try to make them as accessible to as many people as possible, so there’s a lot of variety, too! There are Super Contests focused on Cuteness, ones focused on Coolness, if there’s an area your Pokemon excels, they can probably do well in a Super Contest! And you may be thinking to yourself, but Keira, with normal Contests there’s a goal, the Grand Festival! But that’s not a problem! You see, Super Contests have ranks! Each time you place first in a Super Contest, you then gain the option to participate in the next rank for that category!”

The girl finally ran out of air, and gasped for breath. Lucas looked ready to fall asleep, or really just not be present for this, but Dawn found herself interested.

“The best of the best have reached the Master rank,” Ayako cut in before Keira could continue. “Johanna is too good for this sort of thing, but I’ve been regularly competing in Master rank Cool, Cute, and Tough Contests.”

Her mom rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I could still wipe the floor with you if I wanted to. I’ve just been busy teaching new coordinators!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Ayako sniped back. Her gaze fell to her son, then, and she didn’t seem impressed by his lack of attention. “And even if all of that didn’t get your attention… there happens to be a few other high profile Master rank coordinators. One of whom is the Hearthome City Gym Leader.”

Lucas’ eyes snapped to his mother.

She sighed. “I should have known that’s what it would take. Why don’t you and I have a nice chat, Lucas? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, and I can tell you all about your next challenge.”

Mrs. Platinum dragged Lucas away and Keira quickly gave an awkward goodbye.

That left Dawn alone with her mom.

“Now… would you care to explain the bandages?” Her mom asked as she gave Dawn the look. “And where are all of your friends? Ash seemed like a good kid.”

Dawn tried to clamp down on the feelings of inadequacy welling up inside her. “Well, you see…”

Lucas was having… a day. It had started peacefully enough, sure. But then he’d tested out Rowan’s stupid Experience Share and it had quickly become not so peaceful.

It wasn’t that the thing hadn’t worked. There was no grand explosion, it didn’t injure Togepi somehow, really, it did exactly what he was told it would.

The problem was who he had used it on.

Maybe if he had used his now fully functional Pokedex to do some research beforehand this could have been avoided… well, probably not, actually. It was going to happen regardless, if he wanted to train Togepi, and he did.

But maybe if he had waited longer, had given Togepi a chance to mature before strapping the device to him, the damage would have been… more controlled.

He hadn’t thought anything of the first use. Defense Curl was a perfectly normal move for a Normal type to learn after all. Bibarel had learned it and used it lots of times with no issue. So when Lucas saw Togepi try to use Defense Curl, he had just continued training Eevee, trying to get the Pokemon used to his command style while getting some battle experience in at the same time.

The second use, he saw Togepi wagging his fingers. No big deal, babies do all sorts of odd things, right?

But then the entire clearing went up in smoke and Lucas couldn’t see his own hands if he held them out in front of his face.

At first he’d thought it an attack, and he’d gotten his more experienced Pokemon ready to defend the team.

That turned out to be a false alarm, though. A bit embarrassing, but he eventually picked up on the fact that it was Togepi who had used Smokescreen. That had been the first major red flag in his eyes, because while Pokemon could learn some very surprising moves, he didn’t see how Smokescreen fit Togepi at all.

The third use had been a move he hadn’t seen before. He’d been wrapping up the training with Eevee, preparing to get Togepi back to the Pokemon Center and checked out, when he, and the rest of the team, had suddenly been swept across the field by a huge wave of gross, muddy water.

At that point very eager to have Togepi checked out, but not thinking that Nurse Joy would appreciate him tracking all the mud inside, he’d ordered Bibarel to use Water Gun to clean them all off. Though Grotle had been quick to clean himself off with Withdraw instead for some reason.

Togepi apparently thought that the whole thing was funny, giggling to himself as the rest of the group found themselves dripping with water, Eevee’s fur matted down. So funny that he used it a fourth time, suddenly breaking out into a relaxing song.

When Grotle woke him up in a panic, Lucas realized they’d all fallen victim to Sing and been out long enough to dry off.

And that Togepi was gone.

He did get lucky with the fact that all the mud had left a pretty obvious trail for them to follow. One that led them right into the Contest Hall. He returned his team and stepped inside.

He was much less lucky with the fact that for some reason there was a whole group of girls he knew right inside the door. The Keira girl, his mom, Dawn, and Mrs. Berlitz. At that point he started to wonder if maybe he was still asleep and the whole thing was a nightmare, because he was not about to admit to any of them that he had lost a baby Pokemon.

And they just would not stop talking. He didn’t care about contests, whether they were super or not! He had a Pokemon to track down, and so he only half listened to their conversation while his eyes roamed the building, looking for where Togepi could have gone. The tiny muddy footprints had ended outside, so he couldn’t track him anymore, but… had the little guy turned around in the doorway and gotten lost somewhere else in Hearthome? Was he in some back room of the Contest Hall?

His mom’s mention of the Gym Leader got his attention briefly, and she dragged him off to shove a tuxedo in his hands and give him a few tips on Fantina and her beloved Drifblim named Loony.

But once she finally left him alone, he realized that it had been a really long time since he’d seen Togepi, and maybe he should start to panic a bit. Was N still at the hotel? If he could talk to Pokemon then maybe they could get a whole team of them helping in the search and—

“Excusez-moi? Monsieur? I am thinking you are not here for Contests, no? Perhaps, how do you say… this is belonging to you?” A feminine voice with a very strange accent called out from behind him.

When Lucas turned toward the voice, he almost collapsed in relief.

A woman who really liked the color purple had his Metronome abusing Togepi in her arms, and the little guy was fast asleep, the Experience Share still all over him.

“You are looking très paniqué, having lost something, non? And I have found something très fantastique!”

Lucas eagerly nodded, carefully removing the Experience Share before returning the troublesome Pokemon.

“Merveilleux! Now that I am seeing you though… you seem to be très strong. Enfin, so it shall be. Fantina will wait for you at the Gym!”

It was only then that Lucas pieced together what his mother had just told him of the Hearthome Gym Leader and the appearance of the woman before him.

Togepi had been found by the Ghost type Gym Leader.