“That was awesome, Bev!” Nina ran across the waiting room and tackled her friend with a hug. “That Earthquake straight into Cruella’s noggin?” Nina made a kissing motion. “Muah! That’s Elite tier stuff right there!”

Beverly reddened and wilted slightly at the compliment, feeling like she didn’t deserve it. “That’s not true, besides I couldn’t even take down Josephine.”

“Now, that’s not true!” At this point, the twins also crashed into the duo and joined in on the hug. “You almost had Josephine! Just a little bit more and she would've fallen.” Chimed Fuyumi.

“Yeap! You were super cool, Big Sis Beverly!” Added Natsumi.

“They’re right, Bev,” continued Nina. “Josephine was really low after she fought with Ryu, that’s why Misty told her to use such a big and flashy move to end things. She only looked fine cause she was posturing.”

Beverly shook her head dejectedly. “Doesn’t change the fact that I lost though.”

At this point, Violet joined in and ruffled her cousin on the head. “You did fine. Misty didn’t just give you that Star badge out of nepotism. You nearly took out her Milotic. And had she chosen to send out her Kingdra instead, you would have handily taken him down as well. Her Slowking would have been a different matter. Though I can see your Gyarados putting up a good fight…

“Overall, I would say that your team is almost on par with what we would expect of a Star team. I mean you did earn one Star badge on your own right?”

Beverly denied the accomplishment. “That was with the Viridian Gym. The temp there is a loser, no one takes him seriously.”

Indeed, the Viridian Gym has really been struggling since Giovanni was ousted for being the boss of Team Rocket. No one wanted to take on a role with so much baggage attached to it. So they’ve just been going through a steady turnover of interim Gym Leaders, with the current one, Victor, being longest serving. Mainly due to the man’s meek personality and lack of ego.

Victor’s Star team will still pose a challenge to regular trainer’s of course. But among Ace and Gym Trainers, the guy was considered as an easy score. Some even go so far as to say that his Star badge shouldn’t really count and that if one were a proper trainer then they’d go for a fourth Star badge instead of settling for three.

Nina kneaded her friend’s cheek. “A win is a win, Bev. Don’t dwell on the specifics too much. Will you be staying in the Gym until the conference to train?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

Beverly nodded. “Yeah, Misty said she wanted Luna to work with Kingsley, and for Vapey to work with Violet’s Vaporeon.” the girl turned towards the woman in question. “Is that okay, Violet?”

The blue haired Cerulean sister nodded. “Yeah I can tell that your Vaporeon is probably your weakest link. You evolved him too early didn’t you?”

Beverly averted her gaze at the accusation, too embarrassed to respond.

“Bev… Seriously? After all that Bill taught us about Eevees?” Said Nina, her tone tinged with disappointment.

“I couldn’t help it,” responded Beverly, her eyes wide and teary. “Vapey was all depressed because he kept losing. He was practically begging for me to evolve him! And when he looked at me with those beady little eyes, I just folded…”

Violet sighed. “It can’t be helped. What’s done is done, we’ll just salvage what we can. That said, we only have a couple of weeks until the Conference. So don’t expect any miracles.”

Beverly nodded vigorously and was told to go rest up for now. Nina, on the other hand, was just itching for the opportunity to pet her friend’s Quagsire. A fact that Beverly was well aware of and kept teasing her with.

***

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Nina marched on in solidarity with her fellow Cerulean Gym sisters to enter Victory Stadium. The group made for an imposing sight as the crowd parted ways to allow their passage. Each of the groupy had glow sticks, banners and flags in hand, and were all wearing matching happis that had a picture of Beverly’s snoring face plastered on the back, courtesy of Nina.

Was it a little excessive and gaudy? Yes. But was it fun to tease Beverly like this? Double yes. In fact, the girl’s face was so puffy and red when they unveiled this to her that she could easily be mistaken for a Magmar.

The bright side was that the preliminary matches usually don’t have much of an audience outside of parents cheering on their own kids. So the embarrassment was contained. When the actual main event starts though…

Nina was cognizant that this might come back to bite her in the ass when it was her turn to compete. But she did not care. Everyone was having fun and that was all that mattered.

The seating arrangement in Victory Stadium came in different forms. Most of them were single seats for a party of four or less. But above that, if one came in with a large group of friends and family, they could reserve boxed seating that was similar to those offered in sumo matches of Nina’s past life. Where there was essentially a section of the floor delineated into ‘boxes’ where you could sit on the ground and potentially have a little picnic on.

As members of the Cerulean Gym, they had of course made full use of their clout to reserve an entire section for themselves. It was necessary to accommodate their sheer numbers anyway.

Unfortunately neither of the Cerulean Sisters could join in on the fun. As upper echelons of the Indigo League, they had to show their faces in the VIP areas and take part in various social events during this time. Daisy was especially upset for missing out, even said that she’d find an opportunity to sneak out at some point to join in and that they should save a happi for her.

“Alright Cerulean Gym, are you ready!” Called their head cheerleader, when they spotted Beverly walking out into her arena. The woman also happened to be their resident emcee so she was perfect for the job.

“Ready!!!”

The leader placed a cardboard cone in front of her mouth to use as a makeshift loudspeaker. At the same time, some of the ladies unfurled a massive banner with Beverly’s sleeping face printed on it with the slogan “I’m gonna be the very best, like no one ever was!”

“Yoisho!!!”

“B. E. V.”

“Be Ver Ly!”

“Kick. Some. Ass.”

“Be Ver Ly!”

“Be. The. Best.”

“Be Ver Ly!”

Meanwhile down at the arena, steam could be seen shooting out of the girl’s ears as Beverly sincerely prayed for Arceus to end her misery and reincarnate her as a Diglett right this instance.

The rest of the audience didn’t seem too bothered. Most of them just laughed in amusement at the ridiculous scene and some smiled down warmly at the girl named Beverly who was so loved by her people.

There were sixteen rounds of preliminaries that Beverly had to go through before she could qualify for the main conference. Mainly due to the sheer number of participants that were competing. There are thousands of kids that begin their journey every year after all. And that’s not even including the recurring participants and foreign trainers.

During this stage of the conference, all the matches are three on three for the sake of expediency, as well as to ensure that trainers don’t have to withdraw because their team was wiped out and needs too much time to recover.

And as one would expect, most of the trainers that Beverly will encounter in the preliminaries are firecrackers who went through the Gym Circuit in baby mode. Though every once in a while, there is a chance to encounter a formidable foreign trainer or a recurring participant who is challenging the conference again in the hopes of getting a better ranking.

For her first match though, that was not the case. In fact, the Gym Apprentice swept through the poor boy’s team with only her Mantine.

Beverly had decided to keep one ace in reserve on her team at all times in case she meets a veteran, and rotate some of her weaker members on the other two slots. So if at all possible, she would try to sweep her opponents with either Mantine, Vaporeon or Cloyster just to give them some more experience and bolster their confidence a bit.

Fortunately for her, Beverly did end up passing the preliminaries smoothly. Not that anyone was expecting anything less from the girl. There was really only one match she faced where her opponent seemed fairly experienced. And that was the only time where she had to swap in her second Pokemon to get the job done. But overall, it wasn’t that much of a challenge.

***

Beverly’s first proper match though, was a lot more interesting. Her luck backfired and she got matched up with a Grass Type Specialist right off the get go. And not just any random tree hugger either. This guy was a former Gym Trainer of Erika’s who parted ways with the Gym due to a difference in opinion.

“You know… You Grass people are always coming up to us Water people, being all cocky and thinking you can just roll over us cause Grass drinks Water or some shit,” said Beverly in her victory speech. “But have you forgotten that most Water Types can also learn Ice moves? I mean Ice is just frozen Water. And what are Grass Types weak to? Ice!” Beverly laughed hysterically.

“Hilarious, innit? Ice is just solid Water, but Grass Types are so weak to it!” The haughty girl boasted at the conclusion of her speech, complete with an uppity bitch face that would make even Misty proud.

And to be fair, Beverly did deserve her moment. She swept through all six of the guy’s team with just her Cloyster and Mantine without even having to show any of her aces. And the guy was in his early twenties as well, which meant that he should have been an all around more experienced trainer as compared to the eleven year old Beverly.

“Oof!” Thought Nina. “Mr. Grass is gonna have a hard time living this down. I’m starting to wonder if he resigned from Celadon Gym or he got fired for being too weak. It wouldn’t be surprising even if he hung up his belt after such a humiliating loss.”

Regardless, it was none of her business as she set aside her musings and joined in on the other Cerulean Gym members in cheering for Beverly. Happi, banners and embarrassing slogans fully intact of course.

By this point, Beverly had given up on yelling at them and chose to pretend like her colleagues didn’t exist. Her scarlet red ears gave away the fact that she could still hear them fine though, so the groupies persisted with their loving encouragement.

The banner slogan for this match was simply “Mermaid Sisters: Grand Coordinators Extraordinaire”. It implicated Nina as well but nobody else knew that, so it was fine. The picture was one of Beverly sneakily using her mother’s makeup for the first time. Courtesy of Chelsea of course.