Chapter 14

Dance Battle like Starlord! I mean, Footloose.

The song ended and so did the movement on the stage. Johnny and I were watching the screen as the points were counted. Aaaaaannnddd...

"YEAH!" I yelled and throw my fists in the air. I won by 20 points! That's much better than I expected. The crowd around us cheered as well and I saw some of the others had their own Pokemon out as well to watch this battle between a human and pokémon.

Johnny doesn't looked as happy, as he now glared at me. "That was just dumb luck." He said and was about to choose the next song. I took the controller from the stand before he could and already started using it to choose the next song myself.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Asked Johnny angrily, but shut up as I scrolled threw the list of songs. Probably wondering how I could use the controller so well. I just ignored him and quickly found a song that got a smile on my face. It wasn't a difficult song, but I really liked it. And I was about to do something really stupid...

Johnny saw that the next song was already about to start and got into position. I, on the other hand, faced the crowd and prepared a little show.

"Right now... I just need you to get real loose." I said in synch with the voice from the speakers and faced the crowd of humans and Pokemon directly.

"Get comfortable." I moved a bit around and pointed in the crowd. "Grab your loved ones.. or grab your love partner." I saw some of the Pokemon and trainers move a bit closer to each other, seemingly to understand what I did.

I smiled and looked over the crowd: "And if you're by yourself no worries." I now pointed with both thumps at me and said: "Just follow after me."

With that said, I spun around to the monitor and started to follow the instructions on the monitor... to a certain point as I danced more like Blanco Brown in his video.

"Gon' and do the 2 step then cowboy boogie
Grab your sweetheart and spin out with 'em
Do the hoedown and get into it (whoo, whoo, whoo)
Take it to the left now and dip with it
Gon' throw down, take a sip with it
Now lean back put your hips in it (whoo, whoo, whoo) let's have some fun

I looked over my shoulder and was happily surprised to see not only many of the trainers, but also many Pokemon were now dancing, following my movement. It actually looked funny to see some of the quadruped Pokemon dancing like this in their own style.

"To the left, to the left now (to the left, to the left)
To the right to the right (to the right)
Now take your left hand and put it on your side (put it on your side)
Go on, roll your shoulders (roll your shoulders)
Do the slip and slide (do the slip and slide)
This next part's my favorite part 'cause its time to shine"

I looked back to the screen and was actually surprised to see I was actually getting many perfect scores in the game somehow...

That is... until a leg suddenly came at my legs and I had to dodge and making a misstep. I catched myself and looked to my side where Johnny was grinning at me like the big a**hole he is. "Better take care. This are some difficult steps." he said and looked back at the screen.

I just narrowed my eyes and continued with my dancing. I really didn't care to win before, but now, I want to show it to this guy. I got my scores back up with more good moves, which caused Johnny to curse under his breath and tried to kick me again. But this time, I was prepared and jumped over it and just continued as if nothing happened.

He tried again, but this time, he took a misstep and fell far behind with his points. I just continued to follow the moves on the screen and soon enough, the song ended.

Everyone was watching the score board in silence, and as the final point was counted, the hall broke out in cheers by Pokemon and Humans alike. I had beat him by 750 Points and set a new record!

I was suddenly wrapped in a hug by two arms from behind me and heard my trainer saying: "Argon! That was AMAZING! I had no idea you were this good with games! You are AWESOME!"

I heard the crowd also cheer. Pokemon and Humans alike had good fun and hugged each other. It seems this day was actually getting great...

Well, at least until... "HE CHEATED!" Came a scream from, guess who? That's right! Johnny!

"There is NO WAY a Pokemon could have beaten me in a game that's made for humans! He must have cheated!"

"Wow. That's the lamest excuse in the history of games..." I said with no small amount of sarcasm and a boring expression on my face and an eye roll for good measure. Even though Johnny didn't understood a word I said, he could probably interpret my expression and tone of voice as he snarled angrily at me. I was now actually a bit worried about what he might do.

"He did not cheat." came a calm, female voice from the crowd an made his way to the front. I was really surprised as I saw who it was. A women in a black outfit and sunglasses walked out from the crowd with a Gardevoir right behind her. The women also wore a black hat with a white bow.

"Diantha..." I muttered silently to myself. I saw the Gardevoir blinking surprised at me, but didn't say anything.

The women now stood right at the stage and looked at both, me, my trainer and Johnny. "I can confirm he did not cheat in any way. He was just... better as you."

"But...!" Johnny was about to protest further, but Diantha interrupted him with a stern glare... which was impressive, since she still wore the black sunglasses.

"Maybe next time, you shouldn't put so much effort into trying to trip him and instead concentrate more on the game itself." she said with an edge in her voice. Johnny looked a bit paler and hurried to get out of the game center.

Diantha turned to us with a smile and said: "That was a really impressive performance your Pokemon did there. You really trained him well."

Calem smiled at the praise and rubbed the back of his head, but said: "I actually didn't train him that. He did this all on his own."

While they were talking, Gardevoir looked at me with an look I couldn't really place. She seemed... intrigued by me. Probably wondering how I could use that human tech without training.

"That would be correct, little one." I heard a female voice in my head. I first thought it was Mew, but this one sounded different. More formal. I looked to Gardevoir and saw her looking at me with a little smirk.

I returned the smirk and did the same thing I did with Mew and followed the psychic link to answer her. "Nice to meet you, Gardevoir. Or do you have a nickname?"

Gardevoir was now a little shocked at hearing me using her link to "talk" to her, but soon got a friendly smile again. "My, my. You are really an interesting one, aren't you?"

"I take that as an compliment. What are you and Diantha are doing here? I didn't take her for the gaming type."

"Oh? You know her? I think her disguise needs a bit more work. Could you please not tell anyone?"

"No problem. I can guess it's hard for someone so popular to just take a walk and enjoy the day without getting swarmed by fans."

"You seem to know a lot about this human stuff. My I know who you are?"

"May trainer calls me Argon and I'm going by that name since then."

Diantha interrupted our little chat and said: "I have to go now. But I hope to see you again, young man, and your Treecko here. He seems an interesting fella."

Calem grins and said proudly: "Thanks! I also hope we can meet again."

"Seems like we have to go now. Until next time then." said Gardevoir and turned to follow her trainer out of the hall.

"Until next time." I called after her and waved my hand and she returns the gesture.

Calem sat me on the ground and gathered Kitsune and Thumper around and said it was getting late and we should return to the lab. He returned the other two into their Pokeballs and then held his arm out for me to climb on his shoulder.

With me now perched on his shoulder, we walked back to the lab and got ready for bed. Tomorrow would be the day, where we continued with our journey.

I'm still unsure about my whole situation... but I think there are worst situations I could have been in... and certainly worst trainers I could be stuck with. If I were with Paul, I would probably punch that guy right in the face. (Paul would be a great member for Team Rocket in my opinion.)

As I thought more about it, I know I was still not complete "healed" and will probably have some bumps on the way. But I will take it one step at the time from now on...