Selene
Selene looked around at the audience that were gathered around them...ohhh boy, it seemed as though the entire school and entire HoTa staff had gathered around for these showcase battles...she didn't feel nervous, however. Why would she? Selene loved being the centre of attention! And she knew that she could hold her own against Steven more than well enough to prevent any embarrassment. As Steven's hand hovered over a PokeBall, Selene decided quickly which Pokemon to use. Now, Selene wasn't 100% sure what Steven's team was...she'd heard that he had a preference for Steel-type Pokemon, which would of course indicate that she should use either Ri, Gordon or Sharpay...but then there were quite a few dual-type Steel-type Pokemon, so if one of those dual-typings put her chosen Pokemon at a disadvantage...
"Ri, let's do this!" shouted Selene, releasing her Lucario as Steven sent out...a Metagross. Ahh...that was one intimidating Pokemon...Steven looked Ri up and down from across the battlefield, his face not changing much in expression but his eyes seemed to show approval, almost as though he were impressed by Ri. Then again, he was a Fighting- and Steel-type...it was just the same as Lance taking a shine to Valorie's Dragonair.
Speaking of which...Selene had to stop herself from glancing over to the stage to see what was going on with Valorie and that boy. She had to focus on the battle in front of her, she couldn't afford to be looking off to one side every minute to see how Valorie was doing, plus she knew that her friend could more than look after herself.
Steven and Selene looked at each other over the battlefield, neither of them looking to make the first move. If tumbleweed had rolled past at that very moment, it wouldn't have looked out of place...brown eyes met grey, fixed in determination, neither of them willing to make the first move. However, whilst Steven looked completely calm and composed, Selene was beginning to lose her cool, clenching her hands into tight fists as she tried to stop herself from barking out an attack. More moments passed, and Selene had finally lost it – fine, if Steven wanted to play it this way, she would just dive straight in. In terms of strategy it may not be the best, but after all the drama of the day...it felt as though she just wanted to let loose.
"Bone Rush!" ordered Selene, watching as Ri flew at the Metagross with an outstretched thick bone club, slamming the bone into the Metagross' head once, twice, three times – the Metagross wincing each time and actually taking a step backwards before Steven nodded and instructed Metagross to use Meteor Mash. Just as Ri hit Metagross for the fourth time, he was thrown backwards across the field by a hard punch that struck him in his stomach, as the name of the move suggested, like a meteor.
"Ri!" Selene yelped, watching as Ri jumped back up to his feet – due to his steel typing the attack didn't do too much damage, but it was still a ridiculously powerful attack that put Ri onto the back foot. Selene growled and frowned over at the Metagross – if she had been thinking about it, she would have realised how differently she was acting in this battle as compared to the fight against Mark, battling as normal, letting her emotions guide her and not feeling that cold, detached sense that she had previously. This was how Selene normally battled, if not a little more reckless than usual. "Good, now Aura Sphere!"
Taking a moment, Ri closed his eyes and glowed brightly for a moment before thrusting his arms forward, unleashing the powerful blast of aura from deep within. It rushed at Metagross with an inhuman speed, hitting the Pokemon and throwing it backwards into the air, shocking Selene...throwing up such a massive Pokemon? That must be a strong move of Ri's...
"Legs up, stabilise and Earthquake," said Steven in a measured tone, and Metagross tucked all four legs up underneath him and instantly stopped still in the air, hovering for a moment before stretching out all four legs and slamming down hard onto the ground. The battlefield shook violently, and cracks raced through the ground towards Ri, who was thrown off balance and collapsed onto his back, pushing himself back up onto his feet somewhat shakily. Selene watched closely, nodding as Ri crouched back into his fighting stance.
"Ri, pull out your own Earthquake!" ordered Selene, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Steven gave a small nod...but why, she couldn't tell. Was he nodding in approval? Or was he nodding because he'd expected this move? Either way...she was not going to trouble herself with that right now.
Drawing both legs up, Ri slammed them down into the ground and the already fractured battlefield began to shake with tremors towards the Metagross, whose legs folded outward as the Earthquake reached him, falling to his side with a loud smash, pushing himself back up after the attack had subsided. Although Selene noticed that it's legs weren't holding it up as sturdily as they had been previously...but then, Ri was also looking somewhat unsteady in his fighting position...he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.
"Psychic," said Steven, and Selene frowned slightly. Psychic? Surely he...was he going easy on her?! He would know that Psychic wasn't the most effective move against Ri...why was he doing this? She watched as the waves washed over Ri and he fell to one knee, clutching his head with his eyes jammed tightly closed...getting up with a pained expression...before promptly spinning round and looking at Selene with no recognition of who she was. As...as though he...he was Confused.
"Ri...I know it's difficult to know what to do right now," she said slowly, nodding as Ri watched her closely, "but you need to use Bone Rush, on that Metagross, there. The Pokemon stood right there, the one who did this to you." She didn't know if she was getting through to Ri or not, but as she pointed to Metagross, he turned around slowly and grunted. Rushing forward once more with his bone club, he smashed it down twice onto Metagross, two of whose legs gave out with the impact, before promptly smashing the bone club into his own head...and collapsing to the floor...fainted.
Selene watched as Ri lay motionless on the floor before walking over to him slowly, picking her way over the Earthquake-fractured battleground and crouched down beside him. She stroked his ears gently as Steven returned his Metagross, feeling...surprisingly okay about losing. Of course she was disappointed – it was disappointing to lose in any battle, whether it was against a Champion or a Raikou student – but...this was the Hoenn Champion. A Pokemon he had trained, and it was in bad shape before Ri had knocked /himself/ out in his confusion. He had done amazingly well, and she was proud of him
Returning Ri, Selene smiled at Steven, who gave her a small smile as a return gesture. He held out his hand somewhat stiffly, and Selene hesitated before taking it, receiving a brief handshake from the Hoenn Champion before he dropped her hand and took a step backwards as though he had spent his allotment of personal niceties for the day.
"You battle well. Your Lucario is very well trained and you two obviously share a very close bond. Given some time...it will be interesting to see where you end up, Miss Selene Evans." He inclined his head toward her briefly before turning and striding away, seemingly up the stage then off the back of it to one side – Selene suspected that he was off to some private Champions suite or something...
With a deep inhalation, Selene smiled brightly. So she had lost...but she had lost against the Hoenn Champion, who thought that she fought well and that she had trained her Ri well! She was...proud of herself. And she was proud of Ri too. Making her way off the battlefield, she thanked people as they congratulated her, answered the question "What was it like battling /Steven/?!" about ten times and made her way through crowds until...she spotted Mark by the nurses station with Bri. Selene stopped in her tracks, her small smile turning into a frown as she watched before she turned on her heel – with her head high – and walked back toward the battlefields. While he was safely tucked out of the way, she decided that she would wait for Valorie to finish her battle...and hopefully sort things out once and for all.