Alice jumped as someone spoke behind her. She had been happily watching Biscuits trot around in the sand and was completely shocked by the sudden appearance of someone right behind her.
"Oh, I uh, I, well..." She mumbled, unable to even look the guy I. The eye, focusing on her shoes and talking in a barely audible voice. She took a deep breath, blushing and focusing on what she needed to say, finding the correct words "C-Celia and I are from Scotland" she stammered "My brother runs an ice type gym up in the Highlands and h-his Mamoswime is Celia's mother." She managed to say "A-as for biscuits, m-my first opponent, Kyle, h-he said he would be better with me and gave me the Pokeball b-before I could protest."

As she finished speaking a wave of almost pride washed over her. She knew how hard it was for her to speak to people and was genuinely surprised she had managed to say that much. Finally, she looked up at the guy and almost instantly recognised him.
"Y-you're Z-Zachary right?" She mumbled. She had seen him battle with his elekid and knew he was one of of the other semi-finalists and therefore possibly one of her opponents im the finals. He looked like a strong trainer and Alice had no idea whether or not she would be able to take him in a battle. "I-I'm Alice... I'm also I-I'm the the tournament... H-how did your battle go?" Part of her wanted to hear him say he won, given how tough he looked. She dreaded the idea that someone could be tougher than him.

"Of course you're in the tournament. I saw you battle twice, really clever of you to freeze the water around that Scraggy." Smiling at the nervous girl, Zacharias offered her a handshake. "And yeah, you can just call me Zach. It's nice to meet you, Alice." The teen stepped back to pay the girl's Pokémon some attention watching the little Darumaka.

"As for my battle.. Not the best results in the world, I guess. You could say I learned something from it though. That Bea girl sure can be scary. You wouldn't expect a Litwick to hit as hard as hers did."

"Thanks... I-it's nice to meet you too." Alice mumbled, shaking his hand carefully. Zach seemed like a nice enough person, but part of Alice still wished that the announcer would call the next battle, or he would suddenly remember he had something he needed to do. It wasn't that she was scared of him or anything, it was simply that when confronted by people she didn't know, Alice had real trouble figuring out what to do. She didn't understand social interaction, it wasn't something that you could learn in a book. Technically, she knew some of the theories behind the psychology of human interacdion and had read a large number of pretty awful young adult novels. Regardless of how much she tried to understand people, something about them still eluded her.

"I'm sorry to hear you lost." Alice almost sighed "A Litwick... That could be problematic for Celia..." At this point, she was no longer really talking to Zach as she began to crunch numbers in her mind. She didn't know much about ghost Pokemon, to be perfectly honest there was something about them that creeped her out. But, needless to say, she knew something. She knew that with the heat, Celia being tired and the Litwick being commanded by a strong trainer, her chances were slim. "Crap... I need this, I need to win this. Think Alice, you can do this..."

Zach fought the urge to smile, hearing the girl talk to herself. "I'll just leave you to figure this out then. Good luck on your match!" Stepping away, the teen waved at Alice as he walked off to the stands to mingle with the crowd and hype himself up from his loss. A few spectators patted him on the back and offered kind words. They didn't help much, but the thought was enough to pick him up from the clutches of depression.

Sitting next to him, a man offered his hand to Zacharias. "Hey there. My name's Mark, I saw your battle earlier."

"Hah, thanks. I know it was a pretty rough loss."

Mark raised an eyebrow, before laughing out loud. "Oh, I didn't think so at all! In fact, I was actually going to offer you another chance to compete. You interested?"

Now it was Zach's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Really? shouldn't you be offering this to the person who won the match?"

"Oh, I'll get around to it." Mark glanced towards Alice, who Zach had just left. "She seems preoccupied at the moment, though. I'll take that question as you being interested?"

Thinking for a moment, Zach nodded. "Yeah, I'm definitely interested! Where and when can I compete? Anything I need to know?"

"Here, take this." Mark handed a pamphlet to Zach, who started to look through the paper. "That should have pretty much everything in it you'll need to see. It's invite only, so it really is an honor for you to be invited to this. I only have eight invites, and you're one of 'em pal."

"Well, thanks!" The man stood and offered his hand again.

"I'll see you there then, Zacharias. My email's on the pamphlet if you need to contact me for anything. I need to talk to the others." With those parting words, Mark left, waving behind him absently.

Timothy Horn

Tim sat at the edge of the ring and bellowed with the rest of the spectators on the beach. Next to him, a small, blue frog with a bubbly scarf rooted with him. "Come oooon," he roared. "Use something stronger than that!" he yelled at a Piplup being outmatched by the smoggy attacks of a Koffing. The little penguin was getting frustrated and chirping frantically while its trainer struggled with an idea.

Before either can react, the Koffing appears out of the thick smokescreen and tackles the Piplup to the ground. A second later, it gets a face full of a noxious gas and the fight it over. "Ugh, come oooon," Timothy squirms on the sidelines again. "Who let this kid in the match?" he asks the rest of the crowd. The animations of the recent, but still small for his age 14 year old gains a number of laughs and an audience, as he criticizes someone five years and twelve inches his senior.

"What would you have done to win that match?" asks a professional looking gentleman. Timothy hadn't really noticed the man before now, which is as odd as the un-beachlike outfit the man is wearing. Somehow he manages to blend in when he should instead stick out.

"That's easy," Timothy said boldly unaware of who he might be talking to. "First of all, my Froakie here wouldn't have ended up in that mess to begin with. Isn't that right, Kero? He's way faster than either of those Pokemon." Keroma croaks in agreement. "But if he did, we would have pushed that Koffing out of there with a wide spread Bubble attack. And once we find where he is, Kero would be on it faster than you could blink. We definitely would have won that round."

The man looks back at the field where the Koffing's gas is being cleared away with large fans for the next battle. "You're not in this tournament?" he asks the boy.

"No," Timothy replies. "They won't let me because I'm 'too young'. I think that's a stupid rule. Most of these people are new trainers anyway. Age is just a number. I've been studying frog pokemon since I knew how to read."

The man considers something, looks up at the list of contestants at the far side of the tournament space, and seems to rearrange a list in his head. After he makes up his mind about something, he finds a pamphlet for young Timothy. "If you're serious about competing, age won't be a problem at my tournament. It's invite only."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Timothy takes the folded paper and thanks the man. "You won't be disappointed," he promises. His face glows with excitement and his smile spreads from ear to ear. "You hear that, Keroma? We're finally going to compete in a big league tournament! What should we do with all the prize money?"

Alice's mouth was dry as her hand hovered over Celia's Pokeball. This girl looked creepy, there was something about her that just made Alice's spine go cold. Alice had seen her Litwick battle and knew that there was no way Celia could take it on in battle. With a deep breath, Alice took a gamble. "Go, Biscuits!" She shouted, tossing the Pokeball to reveal the small, quiet looking Darumaka. The heat would help Biscuits battle, and after a scan with her Pokedex, Alice knew that her Pokemon had a move that would help in a battle with another fire type. The only problem was the two had never battled together and Alice had no idea how it their styles would mix. "Don't worry Biscuits, we can totally take whatever this girl cam throw at us!"

The girl swayed back and forth as she saw the new pokemon on the field, she didn't have that before did she? No she only counted one, but that must mean she had tons of other pokemon just not on her belt? Either way from what she knew about pokemon this was a bad match up, though either one that the girl picked would have been for her little Litwick... If only Orin would fight for her, but he was once again just watching from the stands. Beatrix threw her sleeve across her, the pokeball within opening to unleash Litwick, which was once again its happy bouncing self, despite nearly fainting in its last match.

The Litwick was strong, Alice had seen it battle and knew that despite its bouncy demeanour, the Pokemon was certainly to be feared in a battle situation. Alice took a deep breath and lowered her goggles, slowing the world around her and doing her best to focus on the battle. Biscuits only had two attacking moves, incinerate and rollout. The main issue was that the Pokemon Litwick had the capabilities of having the ability flash fire, making it immune to other fire attacks. If it had this ability, the only choice they had would be rollout which was easy to avoid. They needed to test the waters without giving Flash too much of a boost if Alice's suspicions were correct. "Biscuits! Use Incinerate but be careful about it!" Alice ordered. She didn't want to unleash a full scale attack just yet, I'm case the opponemt absorbed the attack. Biscuits looked up at Alice, Confused and then at the sun. Alice knew what was running through her pokemon's kind, but didn't get a chance to shout out before Biscuits took a deep breath and fired out a torrent of flames, boosted by the heat of the sun, despite Alice's instructions.

Suddenly Litwick was set aflame! Beatrix was taken back to say the very least, what were they doing, boosting their enemy?! However, this rolled right into her little plan that she had planned on doing much later in the match. "Ever see a fire pokemon use a water attack?" Within a split second her confused face transformed into a evil grin as the flame atop Flashes head burst into a inferno from becoming powered up by the powerful incinerate attack from before! "Flash, fire spin the water!" With that a stream of flame flew from the litwicks head and towards the water on the side of the arena, slamming into it from the side and causing a powerful jet of steam to fly onto the Darumaka's half of the feild.

Using the water, similar to what Alice had done in her last battle. Alice should have expected something like that, but she was still reeling from Biscuit's refusal to obey her command. Her mind races, looking around her for an answer but before she could come up with anything, the torrent of water slammed into Biscuits, sending him flying
"come on buddy! You gotta trust me, together we got this!" Alice shouted out as her Pokemom pulled itself to its feet "Now, use rollout, aim there!" She commanded quickly. She pointed to a nearby rock, positioned so it would be hard for her opponent to see and curves at such an angle that it should be able to fire Biscuits into the air and hit the floating Pokemon. As a back up, there was a puddle behind the Litwick, created by its own attack. If it managed to dodge her attack, that puddle would cause enough of a splash to hopefully get some damage onto the ghost Pokemon. The Darumaka paused for a moment, looking at the Rock before nodding and rolling rapidly towards the rocky ramp.

Beatrix knew she had a pretty good fighting chance now, with Flash powered up and ready to fight the other fire pokemons defense against fire was pretty much negated, but her confidence blinded her to the other trainers little ploy. "Flash Fire Spin! Set it ablaze and then finish it with Astonish!" The little pokemon did what it was told, sending out a torrent of spinning flames towards the other rolling pokemon, though the flames barely licked it as it rolled away towards its target!

Alice allowed herself a smile as Biscuits rolled out of the way of the fire attack and hurled itself into the air using the boulder as a ramp. Alice's calculations were near perfect and Biscuits collided with his target with great force, landing back on the ground and rolling away. The hit looked strong, but now Alice knew she had to think and she had to do it quickly. There was no way she would be able to use the ramp strategy again, her opponent would expect it, she needed to concoct a new scheme to catch her off guard. To make matters worse, she was locked into the move rollout which meant she was limited in her strategy. She needed to find something else to launch Biscuits and keep her mind clear enough to predict the Litwick's movements. Meanwhile, Biscuits was growing momentum rapidly, become a red blur on the battlefield. All Alice needed to do was figure out a way to use that speed to their advantage.

Sway... Sway.. Sway....

"Hehehehehehe~"

Beatrix giggled to herself as she started to sway back and forth, her arms hanging loosely as she did so. She had done this in her past fight, when she came up with a devious plan to beat her opponents she always got this excited she just couldn't help it! "The pokemon doesn't seem to listen to you all that well girl~" She spoke as her Litwick got up from the ground, it looking more than a little battered by that attack. "I would have liked to see more of your skill from the last battle, but now it ends~ Flash, use smog to hide yourself, lets see if the little one can handle being poisoned." With that Flash in acted its mistresses plan, its infiltrate ability pretty much protecting it from its own attack like it had many times before.

Beatrix had hit the nail on the head with that remark. She was right, Biscuits just didn't trust her enough, Alice was cursing herself for picking him over Celia, Biscuits just wasn't on the same wave-length as her new trainer yet. But, just because things were hard, didn't mean Alice was going to give up on Biscuits. The smog was thick and Alice couldn't see Biscuits, but she knew he wouldn't last long in the smoke. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing. If she listened hard enough, she could just about hear Biscuits in the smoke.
"Biscuits! Listen, just trust me, we can still pull this back! Flash is somewhere to... Your left!" She shouted into the smoke. There was a soft skidding sound as the rolling Darumaka changed trajectory and dashed towards where Alice thought the Litwick was hiding. If this hit landed, they might be able to pull the fight back, but it was going to take a miracle.

Gritting her teeth together Beatrix was glaring towards the girl, not because of her order as the Darumaka missed Flash within the haze of poison smoke, but because everyone she had come against seemed not to take her seriously! First it was the taunting from her first enemy, then Mann with the pokemon that could only use a single attack, and now this?! Did they really think so little of her that they didn't put their best foot forward? Clenching her fist tightly she gestured out as soon as the Darumaka started to come to a stop "Now Flash, finish this. Astonish!" With that Flash intended to finish the fight!

With Flash still standing, Alice knew her last attack had missed. Biscuits was done for, Alice had no ideas. Her arms drooped as she suddenly lost the will to fight. This astonish would almost certainly knock out Biscuits when it hit. Hit. Astonish. Suddenly Alice looked up, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Astonish was a physical attack, which meant the Litwick was going to have to get close to Biscuits in order to finish him. The battle was almost certainly lost, unless... "Hey. Beatrix." Alice chuckled softly to herself. It was a crazy plan, but it might just work "Ever see a fire pokemon use a water attack? Biscuits! Use incinerate on the water! Copy what Flash did!" Alice saw a burst of fire fly out of the arena and hit the still water, causing a wave to fly out of the surrounding water and spray onto the field. If the wave hit before Flash did, it could be enough to knock out the enemy Pokemon, but if it didn't then the fight would be over.

Beatrix menacing grin turned wild as the new and unexpected move was brought out, sure it was coping what she had done at the start but it was something! Everything seemed to slow down as the wave started to come down towards the pokemon. Flash had the perfect opening for its attack but just as it was about to make contact the wave covered the pair obscuring what happened from the trainers and the crowd! The wave slammed into the arena, leaving both pokemon outcold while laying next to each other.

"Both Flash and Biscuits cannot continue! The deciding on the winner shall be left up to our panel of judges"

Liam turned his head up towards the gleaming sun--it seemed relentless in its mission to superheat the sand of the beach and its inhabitants. The usual crowd of swimmers and beach trainers were here like they were on any day, but today they were far outnumbered by the trainers competing in the littles tourney. Liam wanted to compete in the Pokemon League Challenge and winning the littles tourney would have gained him the prestige to challenge a gym leader to a battle, but he had already been eliminated.

Torchic, comfortable and seated in Liam’s lap, was enjoying the sun more than Liam. “Torrrrr” it cooed, eyes drooping. Liam scratched its head, watching the battle. A Litwick was facing a Darumaka, the Litwick’s trainer blazing with confidence. The Litwick and the little girl did seem to be on the same page more than the Darumaka and its trainer. The Darumaka launched itself up into the air off a boulder and landed an impressive hit on the Litwick. Perhaps the timid girl had a chance.

Liam felt a tug on his shoulder. “That’s the girl who creamed my Scraggy,” Thomas Preston pointed at the Darumaka’s trainer, “only with Swinub.”

“I still can’t believe you lost to a Swinub,” Liam laughed.

“I still can’t believe you lost to my Scraggy,” Thomas howled, “maybe you would have had a better time with the Swinub. Scraggy didn’t even get to land an attack.”

If only Liam could have seen it. He had missed the battle between his friend Thomas and the girl even though he had planned to watch all the matches to learn as much strategy as he could. “I was busy battling down the beach in the loser’s bracket, where you so kindly put me.”

There was no official loser’s bracket, but Julio Garza didn’t feel his Lotad had gotten a fair fight, as his opponent’s Electrike had paralyzed and finished the lilypad pokemon almost immediately. Julio wasted no time in challenging Jake Xeva and his Hitmonlee, and gathering Liam and the kid with the small Sandshrew to battle each other as well. They all walked down the beach and marked out an area in the sand. Julio was the sort of handsome, tan devil who could get you to agree to anything with his eyes and his smile.

Julio’s other pokemon, a Natu, had the advantage against Jake’s Hitmonlee, as did Liam’s Cacnea against the small sandshrew, so both battles went quickly and Liam had found himself up against Julio. There were no bleachers, but a few spectators had gathered nonetheless.

Liam knew Julio would choose Natu again. He smiled, and waited for Julio to choose his pokemon. Sure enough, Julio called, “Natu! You’ve got this one!” and Natu was once more soaring over the sand. “Go, Torchic! It’s your turn!” Liam called. He had used Cacnea for both of the earlier battles, so it seemed fair to let Torchic have a go. Plus, Cacnea would fare about the same as Hitmonlee, without any good tools for catching a pokemon in the air. “Now Torchic, ember!” Liam called.

“Dodge it, and hit him with Peck!” Julio reacted at lightspeed. Torchic’s stream of flames missed wide, and Natu swooped in, landing Peck right in Torchic’s chest. Torchic stumbled backwards, but didn’t fall down and wasn’t through yet. “Peck, again!” came the call from Julio.

“Use your speed, Torchic! Dodge it!” Torchic jumped at the last moment, straight upward, having run out of time to dodge left or right. Natu flew straight underneath, but Torchic was already falling and landed squarely on Natu’s head. Torchic was slightly bigger than Natu, who hit the ground under the extra weight.

“Torchic, now’s your chance! Low kick!” Liam called. Torchic performed a somersault and kicked the small bird with a glowing claw. Liam could not hear Julio’s call for a move, but a darkness was enveloping both of the pokemon as Natu used Night Shade. But the two pokemon were still point-black, so Liam called for an ember, and Natu was not prepared to block. The night shade faded away and Julio returned Natu to his pokeball, sooner than Liam had expected.

Julio told Natu what a great job he had done. Liam wanted to be just like that, to be proud of his pokemon even in defeat. If they worked hard, a win or loss would not matter.

“And you’re the champion of the loser’s bracket so far, so you can thank me for that,” Thomas laughed. Thomas' reply brought Liam back to the present, and back to the official battle. The Darumaka and Litwick were still brawling. One of the pokemon created a big splash of water that washed over the battlefield and caused both fire types to faint. There was a panel of judges ready to determine the winner. In Liam’s opinion, both trainers were pretty underhanded in their attempts to exploit the enemy’s weakness to water. Especially since it could easily have backfired for either pokemon. Torchic didn't like the slightest splash of water.

A table of three referees talked amongst themselves, whispers mingling with the crowd arguing amongst themselves. Although disagreements were abound, the one thing everyone could shake hands on was that the battle was tough fought. Finally, the ref of the battle was called over by the panel, and more words were exchanged amongst the now four individuals. The crowd was on the edge of their seats as the ref returned to his spot on the edge of the arena.

"As the rules state, in the event of a double knock out both participants may agree to a tie. In the even a tie is not agreed upon, however, a sudden death challenge will take place, wherein the first Pokemon to land a hit will take the victory. The participants may now talk and come to an agreement. You have one minute to talk."

Alice took a deep breath and shrugged.
"A tie is okay with me." She spoke to the official. The man looked a little disappointed that there wouldn't be another battle, but Alice didn't need to fight again. Both Biscuits and Celia had battled tooth and nail to get her this far, and she was sure that any prize money would be enough to keep her in the country, even split with her opponent who thankfully agreed to the tie game.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Our finalists are too close in skill level that they've agreed to a tie! I present to you our joint victors, Alice Kyte and Beatrix Loren" The crowd applauded, slightly disheartened that there wasn't a clear winner, but Alice really didn't mind. The tough part was over. She removed her battling goggles and took a step away from the arena, walking over to her opponent.
"Th-that was a good battle." She said. Her opponent was certainly creepy, even creepier looking when Alice was close "I hope we can rematch sometime in the future, hopefully the outcome will be a little more... Certain?" She smiled and extended her hand in a friendly gesture, although all she really wanted to do was leave the arena and receive her prize money. Her opponent was strong and she wanted to respect that.

"As the rules state, in the event of a double knock out both participants may agree to a tie-,"

Beatrix did not even listen to the rest of what was said, the battle was over so she brought Litwick back into his pokeball for safe keeping before slipping it into her sleeve. She gave a curt nod to when the girl looked over to see if a tie was ok, it would make little difference to her. However she was more than a little surprised when Alice came over to talk "Yes..." She answered, swaying back and forth like always, though she was at least making a effort to smile normally "However next time make sure to use a pokemon you are use too, and in return I wont go easy on you. It should be a interesting match then heh" She slipped both her hands into her sleeves before turning around "Let us go and claim the prize. I never did bother to check what it was" Ooo the excitement of finding out!

Timothy Horn

Timothy watched the final showdown with elevated interest. Surely these two would be invited to the competition as well. He needed to study..

After the match, Timothy and Keroma made their way toward the concession stands to find food and watch any closing ceremony and presentation of awards. The crowd pressed in and Kero found his way to the top of Timothy's head to avoid falling under foot. "Let's move out of this crowd so we can let Romo out," Timothy offered, who was short enough himself to be knocked around. But if either of them felt uncomfortable in large crowds, little Nyoromo liked them even less. Timothy had learned to leave him in-ball when attending such events.

With a stick of meat in one hand and a fist full of PokeBlocks in the other, Timothy and company gathered at a small tide pool out and away from the larger crowd. Lunch was simple but delicious and greatly welcome as the sun tilted toward afternoon. Nyoromo slapped his tail on the water and both frog pokemon frolicked in the resulting mist. Timothy stretched back and imagined himself on the podium, accepting prizes and applause as he wins his first tournament...

The head referee stepped forward to the participants, Offering his hand to each of them in turn. "Congratulations on the hard-fought victories, both of you. As victors of the tournament, not only do you split the small entry pot for the contest, but you also split a month's worth of delicious Poffins from our sponsor, Poffin House!" Motioning to the side, the ref pointed to several large bags of the luxury food item.

"Poffins are guaranteed to improve your Pokemon's coat and condition in a week, or your money's back! Poffins won as prizes in Poffin House sponsored tournaments, not eligible for refunds. Have a good evening, folks!"

Alice smiled, nodded her thanks and took her prizes, dashing away from the crowd. It was beginning to get awfully, well, crowded around there and she really could use the time away from the spotlight. Once she was away, sitting on the beach nearby, she checked out her cut of the prize money. It was enough. In fact, it was more than enough. With this in her pocket, she could grab enough supplies and ditch this city, get on the road and actually start seeing the world like she had intended when she moved here from Scotland. A smile crept across her face as she buried her checque into her coat pocket, leaning back in the warm sand.
"Excuse me, may I have a moment?" A man spoke from behind her, making her sit straight back up "I'm organizing another tournament, invitation only, and I was wondering if you'd like a chance to compete." He pulled out a pamphlet with a flourish and handed it to Alice who didn't even look at it.
"Thank you, but battling isn't really my..." She began to stammer, but the man stopped her before she could finish.
"You and your Pokemon have a most wonderful way of battling and I would truly love to see it again. Please think it over, and if you wish to join just show up, otherwise it should be interesting to watch if you have nothing better to do." Alice glanced over the leaflet with a shrug and folded it neatly, placing it into her pocket.
"I'll see what my Pokemon want, thank you sir." The man, nodded and smiled and then wandered away. From where Alice stood, she saw him going over to talk to Beatrix. There was something strange about that girl, but Alice knew one thing. She really did want a chance to beat the girl's Litwick. If Biscuits had listened to Alice from the start, the fight would have had a much different outcome.

Timothy Horn

@Gooblefly
"I think you should do it," Timothy announces from behind Alice. "I saw you battle before and I think you could have won if you and that pokemon of yours were fighting the same fight."

Timothy had watched the same man approach her as had come to him earlier. Now that he was aware of him, Timothy seemed able to pick him out of the crowd where he hadn't even noticed him before. His eyes lingered as the man approached Beatrix next, but he spoke to Alice.

"Is that fire pokemon new to you? It took me and Nyoromo, that's my Poliwag over there, a while before we learned how to work with eachother. It just takes practice and familiarity." The advice may seem too simple, coming Timothy Horn
such a short kid who looks way younger than Alice.

"Is he bothering you?" Liam marched up before Alice had a chance to respond to the younger boy, Torchic close behind in tow. Liam didn't hear most of what the boy said, but was a teeny bit suspicious that he was trying to take some of her prize. She had just retreated to an empty bench.

"I'm Liam, and I'd be glad to get him out of your hair," Liam offered. Alice reminded him of his sister. Perhaps because of her pigtails? Torchic, dutifully glaring at the boy, gave an affirmative squeak that was not as menacing as it desired.

"Also don't believe anything that man tells you," Liam motioned towards Beatrix and the mysterious man, "He's obviously running some con. He keeps calling it an 'exclusive' tournament, but inviting pretty much everyone." He produced a similar invitation pamphlet from the pocket in his sleeveless jean jacket. Why was the man not bothering to be discreet about it? If he was going to invite half the city's new trainers and call it "exclusive" then he ought to at least hand out invitations more privately. Liam wondered what his angle was. There had to be one.

The boy didn't actually worry him at all. He really had wanted to warn Alice about the mysterious man recruiting trainers for his competition. Something was off about him. Liam was just trying to play it casually so as to not seem like some conspiracy-theory psycho. There was a chance that it really was exclusive, and Liam had just happened to see several people get invited. Was he overthinking it?

"Alice, right?" Liam said, "I missed the battle but Thomas tells me your Swinub is a force to be feared." It wasn't a battle invitation. Liam wasn't one to challenge random strangers to battles; he wanted to train with them more than battle them.

Timothy Horn

Timothy struggled with words as the older boy ripped into his conversation and then essentially dismissed the boy. Nyoromo was not pleased by this and abandons his lunch and warm water to toe the line across from Torchic, puffing up its chest in defiance.

Over nearby, Zach saw some of the other past competitors talking, paid them no mind. They were probably gossiping about the tournament. What did catch his attention, though, was the man walking around handing out invitations like they were nothing. That did get the teen a little down, but maybe he saw something in the trainers around here? Either way, he stood up from the stands and began to walk away, down the beachfront to try and enjoy the rest of his day. It would be a few days, and between work and training, he would be pretty spent for time. Today may be his last chance to really enjoy some free time to himself.

Beatrix watched the other girl take her half of the prize and run off out of the way of the gathering crowd, was it possible that she was really so shy? Taking her own half of the prize, the Poffins coming in a backpack that had the company logo stamped onto it, though she liked it as she could use it to carry them. Taking the money next Beatrix gave a few waves of her sleeve to the cheering crowd, she found it nice that she was being praised like this...

Maybe she she consider doing this more often and try winning all the time. "I wonder when the nex-," She didn't have time to finish her sentence before a flyer was shoved into her hands by a rather fast talking man before he moved on to some others that he was handing them too. She took a little look down to it before she was was suddenly bumped by the floating sword behind her "What?" It just spun around her to bump the backpack over and over again, causing her to slide across the floor a little, though her blank expression said all what she was feeling at that moment.

Stuffing the money and leaflet into her sleeves she started to make her way out, of course making sure to take out one of the poffins to idly toss it behind her to Orin. On her way out she noticed the girl Alice kind of surrounded by guys, well someone as pretty as her it was to be expected but Beatrix did give a small wave to her anyway.

People. People everywhere. Alice assumed it was because she co-won the tournament, but all of a sudden she was surrounded by people talking to her. The kid seemed pretty nice, Alice didn't really want to talk to anyone, but at least he was just trying to be nice. The Liam guy sauntered over and acted pretty arrogant, acting like the kid was annoying her when really he was just chatting. This was the sort of situation Alice feared most. Part of her wanted to tell the Liam guy to go away because of his 'holier-than-thou' attitude, but that would be mean and she simply didn't want to upset anyone. It would also be pretty easy to agree with the Liam guy and ask him to get rid of the kid, which gave her an easy way to sneak off and vanish and hopefully not have to talk to anyone.

"I, uh, well, I, uh." She stammered, looking for any way to get away from the pair of them. All of a sudden, she saw her opponent Beatrix wave from nearby. "Hey, uh, I'm supposed to be... Uh... Meeting her. Sorry." She stammered weakly, it was a pretty obvious lie as she jumped to her feet and darted away from the pair. She sauntered over to Beatrix and along side her.
"I uh, sorry... But I needed to get away from them so I said I was meeting you 'cause you waved and it seemed like an easy way to get away from them... So, uh... Sorry?" She mumbled quickly, blushing pretty deeply.

Timothy Horn

Timothy takes the dismissal of both of them as fair play and scoops up the puff-chested Poliwag before a fight ensued. He would wait and have it out at the competition the boy professed he wouldn't show up at.

((OOC: Unless someone directs conversation Timothy's way, he is ready to jump to the competition.))