From: Rob (robfrompw@yahoo.com) Subject: [PW!] [SC] The Opening Ceremonies of the Silver Conference Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2003-12-01 00:26:44 PST There's much activity in Silver Town's Silver Stadium this fine afternoon. The Stadium is full of people eagerly awaiting the Opening Ceremonies of the Silver Conference. Early this morning, Pokemon Master Ash Ketchum lit a torch using the Sacred Flame stored in the Ho-Oh shrine at the foot of Mount Silver. He's now jogging towards Silver Stadium, his Pikachu at his side, ready to light the giant torch on the Silver Stadium Platform to initiate this year's Silver Conference. Inside the Silver Stadium, in a single file line, thirteen Trainers stand in a green-walled waiting room awaiting instructions to walk out onto the main field to watch the torch-lighting ceremony. An automated message is issued through the loudspeakers in the room for the third time in the past half-hour, "Please form a line at the entrance to the field. When instructed to, move forward in a slow and calm manner. Thank you for your cooperation." At the front of the line stand a tall brown-haired teenage girl and what looks like a short purple-haired girl. The two are having a quiet conversation amongst themselves. Whenever Robert, the black-haired man behind, them tries to join in on the conversation, the smaller of the two girls insists that their conversation is "girl talk" and doesn't let him participate. "Heya." Andrew, a glasses-wearing man with long brown hair, greets Robert, having walked over from further back in the line. Robert turns to face Andrew and greets him back, "Hello." Andrew asks, "What's up?" "Not much..." Robert admits, then gestures towards the girls standing at the front of the line, "I'm trying to talk with Alex and her friend, but they're having 'girl talk'." "Oh." After a moment of thought, Andrew suggests, "Want to show them a lesson by having 'guy talk' with me?" "Uhhh..." Robert, not used to talking with males, hesitates a moment before saying, "Okay." Andrew prompts, "So, how 'bout them Electabuzz?" Robert sweatdrops before replying, "...sorry, I don't watch sports much." "Neither do I." Andrew admits. Then, after a pause, he explains, "Just seemed like the thing to ask." "It doesn't MATTER who my opponent is!" The conversation between Robert and Andrew is interrupted by the booming deep voice of the only person in line taller than the 6'3 woman at the front of the line - the 6'6 tall muscular man with spiky brown hair known as SHAKK-Master. "No one can defeat the awesome power of Blazerion's Hyper Beam!" "Bah," Evir Apocalyspe, who's standing next to SHAKK-Master, tells his Training partner, "That's nothing, Bo. So what if one or two of your Pokemon know Hyper Beam? ALL of my Pokemon know Hyper Beam! Let's see someone beat that." Overhearing Evir, Andrew comments to Robert, "I pity the guy who has to go up against him." SHAKK-Master is enraged by Evir berating him, "Will the person who's won second place in a previous Silver Conference please raise his hand?" He raises his hand high then looks around to see no one else has done so, "That's what I thought." Standing near SHAKK-Master and Evir is another tall young man - Ben, the Steel Pokemon Trainer. Overhearing all the bragging, the Mawile clamped onto Ben's leg goes limp. Ben speaks down at his Mawile, "Don't worry, Mawile. We've got two Aggron and a Salamance on our side. We can win this." The Mawile perks up, the ends of his clenched steel jaw curving upwards in a smile. "So what?" Evir shrugs, "I have a Salamance too. And mine knows Zap Cannon and Ice Beam!" "Oh yeah?!" SHAKK-Master produces a Pokeball from within his black longcoat and proudly displays it to both Evir and Ben, "I have a gray Level 84 Salamance that's 9'2 tall, weighs 400 pounds, and knows Aeroblast, Earthquake, Sacred Fire, Zap Cannon, and Shock Wave! But keep it quiet." The two people standing in line behind Bo, Evir, and Ben are an angry man in a gray trenchcoat and what looks like an old Eskimo woman. The man wearing the trenchcoat tells the woman, "Your disguise sucks. You know that, right?" "At least I HAVE a disguise," The woman speaks in a muffled voice though the lips on her Eskimo face don't move, "And I'm not the one who shot people at the Whirl Cup. Do you really think no one in the crowd is going to recognize you?" "People are stupid, Carol." "Karen!" "Whatever." Trent explains why he doesn't feel the need to wear a disguise, "The man who shot people in the Whirl Cup was wearing a black trenchcoat. I'm wearing a gray trenchcoat. No one will recognize me." "Riiiiight." Trent is so distracted by his conversation with the faux Eskimo woman that he doesn't notice the green-haired leather-clad biker girl standing further down the line. The biker girl stands with her arms crossed, angry that the line isn't moving. The Trainer standing in front of her, Derek Fisher, tries to start a conversation with her when he notices she looks bothered, "Hi, my name's..." but the girl cuts him off with, "Shut up. I'm here to battle, not to socialize." Derek Fisher then turns to the green-eyed girl sporting spiny black hair who's standing in front of him, "Hi, my name's..." The black-haired girl points at the biker and says, "What she said." At that moment, Sarah the blonde fair-skinned shepherdess wanders into the waiting room wearing a white halter top, a long brown skirt, and brown leather sandals, her wooden shepherd's crook in hand. Seeing the twelve Trainers standing in a line, she doesn't even bother asking one of them if she's in the right place. She just quietly takes her place at the end of the line. When she sees the black leather jacket and green hair of the female Trainer in front of her, Sarah taps her with her crook and says, "H-Hi, Roxie... Fancy seein' you here." Recognizing the voice, Roxie the biker turns around to size up her old rival, "Oh, hey. How come you're not wearing a Karate outfit anymore? Did you give up when you finally realized you suck?" She clenches her fists, just in case Sarah attacks her with her crook like she did in Cianwood City over a year ago. Having been insulted, Sarah gains the courage to speak without stuttering, "No, I just realized there's too many people who suck in the world, like you and all those kids at the Cianwood Gym who hated me because I was a girl, so I decided to start spendin' my time with people who really care about me - my family." "Spoken like a true scared little sissy." Roxie smirks, "While you've been at home, learning how to cook, clean, and churn out babies, I've been exploring the Hoenn region, seeking fame and fortune. When I heard about this Tournament and the $25,000 prize, however, I couldn't pass up the chance to take the short-cut to fame and fortune so I took the first boat out of Slateport and rode my newest bike all the way from Olivine to here." "Good for you." Sarah leans on her crook, "I hope you do as well here as you did in the Whirl Cup. Lose in the first round." "Oh, bravo." Roxie claps her hands mockingly, "Did it take you all night to think up that lame insult? Still, at least you're lashing out at me instead of crying. You're showing progress. And that halter top! Seems like you might have some potential to not be a total douche-bag, after all." The biker girl winks at Sarah. "Don't swear!" Sarah narrows her eyes at her long-time rival, "I'm just tellin' you how I feel and I'm wearin' this top since it gets hot down south. My time as Belle helped me reach a healthy balance between bein' modest and bein' practical." "Yeah, yeah - whatever. Spare me your conversion story." Roxie points her thumb at Derek Fisher, "Like I told this guy earlier, I'm here to battle, not to socialize." That said, Roxie turns her back on Sarah. Two more Trainers, one male and one female, enter the waiting room together, having a serious argument on their way in. The male is P-Masta J, a white guy with blond dreadlocks who's wearing dark blue sunglasses, a white undershirt, tan baggy pants, and gold-plated white sneakers. The female is Barbara, a tall young woman with long blue hair and wise green eyes who's wearing a sleeveless form-fitting pink dress and black flip-flops. P-Masta J points both index fingers at Barbara in a gesture of annoyance, "Naw, what's whack is yo' not forgivin' me for stuff that went down years ago, biatch! I TOLD ya, my music's helped me get betta'. I'm over yo' badonkadonk, fo' sheezy!" "Please refrain from using profanity when referring to me, ex-con." Barbara crosses her arms, "And for goodness sake, Jeremy, start speaking proper English again. I can understand Pokemon better than I can understand you. One of the few things I admired about you when we were dating all those years ago was how well-spoken you were. And now..." "Yo, don't be a playah-hatah!" P-Masta J shakes his head, "All those years I wuz frontin', now I'm keepin' it real. And I'm bein' real when I says I'm not stalkin' ya, Bambi. It wuz jus' coincidence we got here at the same time, tha's all. Pssht, 'sides, I got so much pimp juice nowadays all honeys and the ho's be hollarin' when they see my grill, nowhudimsayin'?" "I can somewhat piece together what you just said," says Barbara, "But I still believe you have ulterior motives buried under your facade of being a gangster rapper. If only I had more advanced psychic abilities... Anyway, I think I can never forgive you for what you did and said to me in Saffron City after you were released from prison." "Trainers, approach the field," An automated message is issued through the loudspeakers in the room, "Please form a line at the entrance to the field and move forward in a slow and calm manner. Thank you for your cooperation." "Yo, time to rollout." P-Masta J tells Barbara, "Let's keep talkin' 'bout this later. Gimme a holla at tha PC, a'ight?" "Perhaps I will, perhaps I won't." Barbara replies coldly, "I'll contemplate it during the Opening Ceremonies." She takes a few steps forward as the line of Trainers move into field of the Silver Stadium to roaring applause from the audience. Within five minutes, fifteen of the Trainers who will be participating in the Silver Conference stand in Silver Stadium's field, bathed by the glow of a beautiful sunset as the crowd cheers for them. From the shadows in one hallway leading into the field, Ash Ketchum enters the Stadium carrying a lit torch, his Pikachu close behind. The cheering in the crowd intensifies when they see the flame and the famed Pokemon Master who lit the Stadium's giant torch in the past. As Ash runs towards the platform, his image appears on all of the Stadium's huge monitors and the Stadium's announcer says, "Carrying in the torch is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! The Sacred Ho-Oh Flame, from the same legendary Pokemon that was said to have quelled a battle long ago, restoring life to the plains and forests surrounding Mount Silver, is now being carried onto the Silver Stadium Platform!" Once Ash has reached the platform, he holds the torch up high to more applause. Ash Ketchum is about to light the giant green bowl on the Silver Stadium's Platform when all of a sudden a young man wearing a Marowak helmet, baggy clothing, gloves, and tennis shoes comes soaring into the Silver Stadium from high above, his feet firmly planted on a skateboard. The air-bound skater cries out "Talk about extreeeeeeme!" as he lands in the green bowl. He performs a few skateboard tricks as he overcomes the inertia that keeps him moving then leaps out of the bowl, still on his skateboard. Smasher, the skateboarder, tells Ash, "Sorry about that, dude - I didn't mean to land on the bowl, I meant to land on the field. Carry on." After apologizing, the Smasher climbs down the staircase leading up to the Platform, without getting off his skateboard, and takes his place beside the fifteen other Trainers on the field. The applause from the crowd becomes even louder after the young man performed his skateboarding tricks, especially since they thought it was all just part of the show, and louder yet when Ash Ketchum uses his lit torch to light the Silver Stadium's giant green torch. Once the torch is lit, Mr. Goodshow, a short old man wearing a purple cap backwards, a red shirt, and brown shorts, approaches a microphone set up on the red platform at the base of the staircase. He speaks into the microphone, "Skillful and excited participants - now that the Ho-Oh Sacred Flame is watching over all of you, battle with honesty, integrity, and honor, so that you will never regret a single moment of your time here." *** The next morning, in Silver Town's Pokemon Center *** After having performed their morning duties, sixteen Trainers that are registered for the Silver Conference and their friends are waiting in the lobby of Silver Town's Pokemon Center. Many of them are staring up at the giant monitor behind the long front desk. Nurse Joy, who's sitting behind the desk, presses a button on her computer and the headshots and names of Trainers that will be battling each other in Round One show up on the huge screen: Round One of the Silver Conference: Match 1: [ Derek ] vs. [ Smasher ] Match 2: [ Alex ] vs. [ Ben ] Match 3: [ Bo ] vs. [ Sarah ] Match 4: [ Andrew ] vs. [ Evir ] Match 5: [ Robert ] vs. [ Roxie ] Match 6: [ Aerie ] vs. [ Trent ] Match 7: [ Barbara ] vs. [ P-Masta J ] Match 8: [ Tsunade ] vs. [ Karen ] Sarah, one of the few Trainers who wasn't staring at the screen, has her long brown skirt tugged by her little brother, Teddy, who came with her to Silver Town to keep an eye on her. He points at the screen and says, "Look, Sarah - there's your name! Looks like you'll be battlin' a guy called Bo. I've never heard of him, but then again, I've never heard of any of the people on that screen." "Well, I'll try my best to beat him," Sarah smiles softly at her little brother, "Thanks again for pleadin' so much to Uncle Bob at our Thanksgivin' dinner to get him to let me come here. I've been enjoyin' myself so far, for the most part." Teddy takes a bow, "It was my pleasure, sis! I'll be watchin' in the stands today, rootin' for ya at the top of my lungs!" Meanwhile, P-Masta J struts around the Pokemon Center, looking for Barbara, but she's no where to be found. When he sees his old rival, Robert, who he caught up with during the Opening Ceremonies last night, standing next to Andrew in the Pokemon Center, P-Masta J says, "Hey, 'doom. Hey, guy. Any of you peeps seen my ex-girl?" Robert shakes his head, "Sorry, Jere- uh, P-Masta J, I haven't seen her. I've been too busy staring up at the screen waiting for it to tell me who I'm going to battle today." Andrew asks, "What does your 'ex-girl' look like?" "Yo, she be a tall tight white hottie, fo' sheezy!" P-Masta J smiles, thinking about Barbara, "She be wearin' dresses now and she don't wear much ice or bling-bling, but she don't need it cuz she got a badonkadonk that don't quit, nowhudimsayin'?" "Oh, in that case..." Andrew shakes his head, "No, I haven't seen her either." "Word?" P-Masta J slouches in disappointment, "That sucks, cuz I gotsta bounce now. Bye, guy. See yo' grill later, 'doom." After P-Masta J has left the building, Robert asks Andrew, "So, do you want to go to the Silver Stadium now, or should we do research on the Trainers we're going to battle using the computers here first?" -Robert