"Chuu?!"
As the dense raindrops fell on its body, Altaria did not look happy. Instead, it began looking around in panic. It seemed to really dislike rainy days.
Everyone present, including Lisia, actually understood why. For Altaria, sunny days, sandstorms, or even hail were bearable. Even though its Dragon typing resisted Water-type attacks, only rainy days were unbearable for Altaria.
—Because cotton is not waterproof.
Rainwater falling on Altaria's cloud-like cotton wings did not slide off or get repelled by a waterproof layer. Instead, it soaked straight in! The cotton wings were visibly absorbing water and collapsing at a visible speed. Once thoroughly soaked, Altaria would even lose its flying ability in a short time!
If this were a Contest battle right now, Lisia would lose points right from the start.
Lisia, who understood this very well, knew she had to find a way to break the deadlock.
"Guh… We can't just sit and wait, Ali! Sunny Day!"
Given her background, even if she wasn't that sharp about things outside of Pokémon, Lisia's fundamentals had been personally trained by Wallace and Juan. She immediately thought of using weather against weather.
Altaria, with whom she shared a deep bond, instantly responded to the command. It stretched its neck as much as possible and gathered a scorching fireball of flame in front of its open beak!
Boom!
The light orb was spat into the sky by Altaria and exploded with a sudden bang! Intense light spread out, frantically dispersing the gray rain clouds under the ceiling.
"A very good choice, but… Lisia overlooked something more important."
Juan's tightly furrowed brows were like the gloom under the ceiling—impossible to dispel.
That's right. Altaria had successfully released Sunny Day. Logically, the weather should shift to Sunny Day, which favored Fire- and Grass-types while disadvantaging Water-type Politoed. At least, that was how it worked in the games.
But from Wallace and Juan's perspective, although the strong light had dispersed some of the gloom, it quickly lost momentum. The reason was simple: Altaria's mastery of Sunny Day was inferior to Politoed's, which had turned "Drizzle" into instinct, hammering that instinct day after day while training beside that huge damp rock.
Of course, the gap in strength also played a part. If their strengths were similar, the two sides could still compete for weather control. But just like how Pelipper's Drizzle couldn't dispel Groudon's sunlight, or Terapagos's sunlight couldn't dispel Kyogre's rain, Altaria's Sunny Day was in an absolutely disadvantageous position against Politoed's Drizzle.
Altaria failed to seize control of the weather!
"In that case, let's decide the outcome before its wings get completely soaked. Ali, Disarming Voice!"
While cutely spinning in place, Lisia issued the attack command. Accompanied by Altaria's enchanting singing voice, countless pink heart-shaped notes turned into sound waves and rushed toward Politoed!
The water surface where Politoed stood began to shake violently, and it itself showed an uncomfortable expression.
"It worked!"
Lisia's expression brightened, but in the next moment, she couldn't smile anymore.
Affected by the sound waves and feeling uncomfortable, Politoed immediately began preparing its counterattack.
"Polito—!"
A roar-like loud cry turned into sound waves far more intense than Disarming Voice, even shattering the raindrops into scattered water molecules with the terrifying shock. The move "Hyper Voice," a common technique influenced by Politoed's own racial talent.
"Ugh, hold on, Ali! We'll counter with Hyper Voice too!"
Lisia covered her ears and issued the instruction with difficulty.
The next instant.
The two fierce sound waves collided, but there was no even match. Accompanied by Politoed's increasingly resounding cry, the Altaria skilled at showing off its singing voice was completely suppressed!
Hyper Voice vs Hyper Voice ended with Altaria's defeat. In the end, a beautiful singing voice couldn't match a thunderous roar in power.
But there was good news: because it had been continuously within the range of Hyper Voice, Altaria's wings, which had become much heavier from the rain, unexpectedly shed most of their burden. Most of the moisture had been shaken off!
"Hydro Pump!"
Lucas issued the new command without hesitation. By the time the dazed Altaria reacted to the sound waves, the rushing water column was already right in front of it.
Lucas and Politoed were still planning to soak Altaria's wings. Lisia understood this too. To prevent Altaria from becoming a drenched mess, she decided to go all out.
"An idol in a Contest can't afford to lose composure! Ali, full power Dazzling Gleam!"
Brilliant strong light burst out with Altaria at the center and collided head-on with the Hydro Pump fired by Politoed.
Under normal circumstances, Altaria might have been able to withstand this highly targeted Hydro Pump with Dazzling Gleam. But now it was not only raining—it was Politoed's home field, and the strength gap also affected the final result.
After a brief stalemate of over ten seconds, the Hydro Pump broke through Dazzling Gleam's defense just like the previous Hyper Voice and slammed directly into Altaria. The power was mediocre due to Dragon-type resistance to Water, but Altaria was still forced to land on the floating platform of the water arena.
Looking at its appearance now, it had nothing to do with elegance or beauty. It had completely become a dazed drenched chicken, dripping water all over its body.
Lisia wanted to remedy the situation and tried to have Altaria use its training spinning motion to quickly shake off the water, but Lucas wouldn't give her that chance.
"Blizzard!"
"Polito!"
Politoed raised its hands, and a cold current mixed with ice and snow blew up behind it. In the rain curtain, the overwhelming white torrent froze countless raindrops and also froze Altaria.
A four-times super-effective blow completely ended this one-sided crushing battle. Besides soaking Altaria's wings, Lucas hadn't even used any real tactics. The entire time, he had simply used stronger, more oppressive moves to force Lisia and Altaria to counter, then broke their counters, repeating the cycle.
While feeling disappointed, Lisia also confirmed the correctness of the theory Lucas had pointed out and that she had pondered all night.
—As long as she became stronger, with pure numerical enhancement, she could realize her own aesthetics and convey them without reason!
Yes, her unique idol path would be the same. Lisia had finally found the path to becoming the world's number one Contest idol!
Beside the water pool of the battle arena.
"Bagogo!"
Terapagos's eyes sparkled as it looked at Politoed, thinking it was really amazing. That energetic Hyper Voice was super cool!
"Polito…"
Rarely praised like this, Politoed felt a little embarrassed. Its face turned red as it replied that Terapagos would be able to do the same in the future. After all, it had heard from the other companions that Terapagos was on the level of Moltres, Regice, Calyrex, and Spectrier—definitely going to be much stronger than an ordinary one like itself that could only rely on effort.
But Terapagos didn't think so. It lowered its head somewhat dejectedly.
"Bagogo—"
Saying it was stronger than Politoed? It could only maintain its battle form for a very short time. How could it fight like Politoed?
Although it had suddenly arrived in the "future world" Lucas mentioned, Terapagos could still sense that, compared to its powerless self in the past, it hadn't changed much. The Tera energy inside its body—which determined the future upper limit of every Terapagos—was still only that tiny amount. It was completely unlike some powerful members of its species, whose Tera energy overflowed and could even affect the surrounding environment.
Politoed didn't know why Terapagos had suddenly become dejected. It could only clumsily comfort it. At the same time, it thought that if its reliable good friend Ceruledge were here, the other party might be able to reliably dispel Terapagos's unknown unease.
While the two Pokémon were communicating, on the other side, Lucas also pointed out a few shortcomings Lisia had shown in the battle. After all, Contests also tested a Trainer's command ability. If Lisia wanted to improve, she couldn't avoid these issues.
However, in the end, all problems boiled down to insufficient stats. Under the hesitant expressions of Wallace and Juan, Lisia had already declared that, for the sake of progress, she would begin ascetic-style training!
Fortunately, Altaria had mostly recovered under Comfey' treatment and was no longer shivering like when it had just been thawed. It was now carefully grooming its feathers with some heartache. After being soaked and then frozen, Altaria felt its cotton wings were no longer as fluffy.
Seeing this, Lucas casually remarked, "As expected of a girl. You can tell at a glance that it really cares about its appearance."
It was just an ordinary sigh, but Lisia instantly reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and immediately emphasized, "Ali is a handsome and charming cute boy!"
"Huh?"
Lucas was slightly stunned. He had completely not expected that this Altaria, which had been whimpering in Lisia's arms after thawing, was actually male. And this guy could even match Lisia's idol cutesy actions perfectly!
Had the trap Gardevoir and trap Sealeo army already invaded here?
A while later, under Lisia's reluctant gaze, Lucas and Wallace left the Sootopolis Gym.
Today, Wallace would take Lucas sightseeing around Sootopolis City, while Lisia, to prepare for the upcoming Wallace Cup, could only bitterly continue special training, hoping to achieve a good result. Winning the Wallace Cup Ribbon—ideally the championship—would be best. Otherwise, Lisia really wouldn't have the face to mention that she was Wallace's niece.
Throughout the day, Wallace took Lucas to many of Sootopolis City's Attractions and let him experience activities unique to the area. At least Lucas had a lot of fun, and Luxray and the others also enjoyed the interesting aspects of traveling to different regions.
However, although it was called sightseeing in Sootopolis City, it really was just sightseeing. At least Wallace never showed any intention of taking Lucas to the real Cave of Origin. The fake one had been on the itinerary from the beginning.
After all, that place was the core of Sootopolis City, and Wallace currently had no reason to take him there. Knowing this, Lucas didn't insist on demanding a visit. In fact, not visiting was better. Because if they really went, things would probably get out of hand.
As a descendant of the "Sootopolitan," Wallace bore the duty of guarding the Cave of Origin and the seal of the "Sky Pillar" hidden in the nearby waters. If Wallace took him to the Cave of Origin, it would mean entering the plot of the Hoenn legendary Pokémon war involving the land, sea, and sky. Lucas had no desire to get involved in such troublesome matters.
So Wallace's actions actually made Lucas breathe a slight sigh of relief. While strolling along the streets of Sootopolis City with Wallace, he pondered what to do next.
The seas of the Hoenn region were vast enough that even if Lugia and the giant Dragonite appeared, they wouldn't cause much commotion. Since there was still some time before the Wallace Cup, Lucas didn't plan to stay in Sootopolis City the whole time waiting for it to begin.
So once the schedule here ended, on the way to Lavaridge Town, he could summon Lugia using the Silver Feather he carried with him. Although he didn't know which sea area it was currently in, it shouldn't be far from Hoenn's waters.
After discussing with them, handling Professor Lund's invitation in LaRousse City—and then enjoying the hot springs in Lavaridge Town, he could head to the Kanto seas at the end of the holiday to look for the giant Tentacruel.
Unknowingly, the sky had taken on the hues of sunset. Lucas and Wallace also arrived at the final stop of their Sootopolis City tour—the central area of Sootopolis City.
It was a park-like area with lush green lawns where large patches of flowers bloomed in competition. Many residents of Sootopolis City and tourists sat here leisurely admiring the flowers or picnicking. The atmosphere was very relaxed.
In the center of the lawn stood a huge tree by itself, and nearby was a historical Attraction modeled after the real Cave of Origin but open to the public. Today's final stop was this fake Cave of Origin, which recorded some historical murals.
Lucas was quite curious how Wallace, a descendant of the "Sootopolitan," would explain the obviously beautified and dramatized "story" of the past meant to attract tourists. Would he really not laugh out loud because he couldn't hold it in?
But as they passed the huge tree, Lucas's peripheral vision subconsciously glanced at the flowers around it. It was a habit of his—some flowers might interest Comfey and be made into wreaths.
But that one glance made him stop in his tracks, frozen in place.
Among the blooming flowers was one with three long petal-like leaves. It looked somewhat out of place among the surrounding vibrant blooms, overall black-red in color, gently swaying in the breeze.
That was the Eternal Flower!?
…