Unforeseen Hoenn Contest Rules

Serena stepped off of the boat into Slateport City for the first time, ready to partake in the fabled Pokemon Contests. She had brought all her TMs so she could find the best move combinations for Meowstic in every Contest, but she was going to start by showing off how cute she was!

In fact, in order to best show off her Meowstic's cuteness, she had bought her an outfit to wear. She had checked through all the best fashion boutiques in Kalos and pulled together a stunning combo:

First, a bowtie. Pink, of course.

Then, a special hand-knit vest, in a striking blue color, and a frilly white tutu.

Lastly, a hat. But not just any hat! Serena had made certain to find an exact replica of her own beloved red hat, so that she and Meowstic could match. She'd heard this was a popular choice in the Hoenn contests, and she figured she'd want Meowstic to wear the hat anyway.

Serena herself was dressed to the nines, in a beautiful purple dress she'd found in Anistar with a black lace pattern at the hem, a matching black cover up, black-and-white striped thigh-highs, some smart black Mary Janes which had cost her a pretty penny at the Lumiose Boutique, and, of course, her iconic red hat. She was an adult now, with all that "saving the world" business a few years behind her, and her well-developed body, along with her exquisite Kalosian fashion sense, were turning heads from all across the harbor. She hoped they'd come see her dominate the competition, though it was still a bit of a trek to Verdanturf.

She walked north out of the City and hopped on her bike to go up Cycling Road. It was always a little uncomfortable riding a bike in a dress, but she'd grown accustomed. Anything for fashion, after all! A trainer stopped her a short while into the road, claiming he desired a battle, but Serena knew all he really wanted was to ogle her. Unluckily for him, she was the strongest trainer of the Kalos region, and his Electrode and Klinklang were no match for her!

She made her way through Mauville, noting how tacky this giant mall was in comparison to her usual port of call in Lumiose City, but eventually found her way to the quaint town of Verdanturf, where all Contest wannabes must begin. She noticed a very angry looking woman in a fancy outfit rather like a Battle Chatelaine's storming angrily out of the town muttering something about "bs fine print", but she didn't think much of it. After all, lots of people get worked up over the smallest things.

She entered the Contest Hall, clutching in her hand her copy of the entry form she'd sent in weeks ago, positively buzzing with excitement that her dream was finally coming true. She handed it to the person at the desk, who gave her a bit of an odd look, checked the records, muttered "Tourist." under her breath, and begrudgingly pointed her in the direction of the women's dressing room.

Serena entered the dressing room and saw some of her competition. Obviously she wouldn't get to see any of the men competing unless she watched the stage during performances, but from here she could see a buxom woman pulling on a green cover-up over a white dress with some slits that would've been incredibly daring were it not for her thick white tights. Elsewhere in the room was a girl about Serena's age who had dressed herself and Combusken in matching cute dresses, and a cute younger girl with a ponytail and a yellow jumpsuit with flared bottoms.

Serena, already dressed for the Contest, let out her Meowstic and began putting the accessories on. After a few moments, the receptionist walked in, took a quick glance at Serena and Meowstic, and said "Oh, no, that won't do at all."

Serena looked up at the woman, puzzled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I supposed to be using Pokemon native to the region?" She blushed a little, awkwardly. "I think I might have skimmed the rules a tiny bit. There were so many pages!"

"Obviously you did skim. It says quite clearly:" The woman grabbed and held up Serena's own registration form "'All contestants and their Pokemon must wear costumes which are either identical or notably aesthetically similar. Failure to comply will result in immediate disqualification from the current Contest Challenge, and in certain cases may even result in revoking the ability to compete again. Leniency may be applied at the discretion of the judges, but contestants should not use that as an excuse to flout the rules'."

"But... I didn't get us matching outfits! I got one for me and one for her!"

"Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. Either you find some way to match, or you're out of here."

Serena looked around the room. The trainers were letting out their Pokemon now. First she saw a Gardevoir, in its natural state, with only a flower pin as accessory. She looked at the trainer and realised that the white dress was designed after Gardevoir's feminine appearance. Obviously this counted.

The younger girl had a Mawile, which also fit the costume she had picked rather well. And of course the twintail girl actually had matching outfits.

So here she was, obviously the only one who didn't get it.

She turned to address the assistant again, but she had left the room, apparently too busy to waste any more time here. She looked again at the girl in the pink dress. It was the only matching 2-set costume in here.

"Um, excuse me. I was wondering if, after your performance, there would be any way I could borrow your dress? Meowstic and my costume's seem to have gotten a little mixed-up."

The girl turned to look at her with a perplexed look. "Well you both seem to be wearing costumes, though I have to say they're a bit clashy." Serena winced at the insult. She's a Kalosian, no one should be insulting her fashion! "But you and I seem to be the same size, as do Chickly and... whatever you have there. When are you performing?"

Serena looked down at the paper, hoping it would help, but the friendly girl pointed her to a screen on the wall with the names of all the contestants on it. Apparently "Chickly the Combusken" was with May, the Mawile (Mary) was with a girl named Cece, and the Gardevoir (unnamed) was with a woman named Alix. Also according to the screen, May was performing 6th, and Serena immediately after her.

May sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Sorry I can't help ya, but these things go by fast. We wouldn't have the time to get you into the dress."

Serena nodded and fought the tears welling up in her eyes. She thanked May softly and turned away to brainstorm. The nearest shops weren't all that close, and even if they were, they likely didn't have matching outfits for humans and Pokemon. She considered a plain white dress and deep blue scarf, but she wasn't sure if that would be a good enough resemblance to Meowstic to appease the judges. Maybe the hat could cinch it? By her estimate, she probably had about half an hour to go get a costume. She walked over to the door back to the lobby, opened it...

... and was greeted with a now-familiar face. "Ah," an unsubtle grin crept across her face "decided to quit, have you?"

"No, of course not. I'm going to rush to the shops to get a better outfit so I can compete. It's what I came here to do."

The assistant leaned forward onto the desk as Serena heard a bell ringing. She poked her finger onto a sheaf of paper on the desk and read, without looking at the page: "'No contestant may leave the building for any reason from the moment the bell rings to start the show to the end of the award ceremony, and must stay in costume to the same endpoint, starting from their performance. To do either would be instant expulsion from the circuit.'"

Serena's witty smile dropped. Even if there had been more time, May couldn't have given up her costume: they'd both need it for the awards. "What about refusal to participate?"

"'If a contestant does not enter the performance area when called, the contestant will be instantly disqualified and at the judges discretion expelled from the entire circuit."

Serena closed the door and re-entered the dressing room. She couldn't perform as she was, she couldn't get a new outfit, she couldn't borrow one, and she couldn't refuse to perform. All of those options could lead to her never being allowed to compete again.

She walked over to the full-length mirror and examined her and Meowstic's costumes once more. There was no way enough fabric could be taken from them to mix into a wearable set of costumes, and even if it could, she didn't have the time or skill. They had the hat in common, but besides that, she had nothing. Nothing she was wearing below the neck matched Meowstic. They had nothing in common.

A terrible idea began to formulate in Serena's head...

May and Chickly bowed politely and left the stage, and the announcer called out "Next up, all the way from Kalos, Serena and Meowstic!"

But they didn't step out instantly. There was an awkward pause. The audience and the judges began to get a bit anxious, but before too long, a Meowstic began to walk out on-stage. They gave an "awww" to the Pokemon, who was looking very cute wearing just a hat.

And then Serena walked out.

Serena was, as per the rules, wearing a hat matching Meowstic.

Also like her Meowstic, she was wearing absolutely nothing else.

Serena wasn't often very conscious of the way her body moved, but her breasts were far from mosquito bites, and every step she took the little tremble of them felt like the biggest motion in her entire universe. Luckily, the spotlights (oh God the spotlights) heated up the stage, so at least she didn't feel cold pink nipples hardening on her very visible chest.

Serena didn't pay an awful lot of attention to what the other contestants had done. She was far too nervous. Was this even allowed? The assistant had looked at her when calling her to the stage, and she didn't say anything, so she wouldn't get in trouble, right? Right?

Serena didn't know where to put her hands. Would they be mad if she covered up? But surely they couldn't make her stand at attention. She decided to let her arms hang loosely, and try to look natural while au naturale.

The crowd was astonished. It wasn't a very large crowd, less than 100 people for sure. But still more people than Serena had thought would see her naked through her entire adult life. She had, maybe naively, hoped that number would become a solid "1", but she hadn't even worked up the courage to ask Shauna out yet. Though she was certainly showing a lot of courage now! Maybe she should do that after she wins all the Contests and goes home.

A lot of the men suddenly seemed far more interested in the show, while the women suddenly seemed very upset at how attentive their partners were after having to be begged to come along. The judges seemed not to know what to think. The costume certainly matched, and after a cursory scanning of the rules, they noted that technically, they had never said that contestants would have to cover their naughty bits. Eventually, they chalked it up to a girl who thought she was so smart pointing out a flaw in the system in a daring and exciting way.

After maybe 30 seconds of standing in the view of dozens of people fully naked, which somehow managed to feel longer than all the time she'd spent in Hoenn so far, Serena remembered that she was here to put on a show. Well, Meowstic should be putting on a show. She wished people would stop looking at her.

Serena had four moves to wow the judges (although they already looked pretty wowed), and she knew she had to get them in the right order in order to make an impression (although she probably already had).

To start, she had her Meowstic use Disarming Voice. It's always best to make your Pokemon look helpless if you want people to think she's cute, and the adorable noise Meowstic made seemed to draw attention to her as the room was filled with a resounding "awww...".

Next, of course, she had it Yawn. A yawning animal is one of the cutest things you've ever seen! And making the audience just a little more tired helped keep their attention off of Serena as well. Then, for her cunning finishing combo, she had Meowstic use Rest and fall asleep in front of everyone, followed by Sleep Talk! Her little mewling Meowstic was getting heart eyes from everyone around, and she felt secure knowing her combo was a rousing success.

Arousing.

Suddenly, she remembered her situation. She went for her bag to pull out an Awakening to get Meowstic up as quickly as possible, before remembering she'd left it in the changing room. She'd have to stay here and wait for Meowstic to wake up on her own, all while the audience and judges, aware the show was over, moved their eyes to her for a different show. After what again felt like days but couldn't have been a minute, Meowstic woke up, she and Serena bowed, and Serena rushed back into the changing room to grab her clothes.

Just as she was pulling her knickers on, the assistant walked in. "'must stay in costume to the same endpoint'." Serena begrudgingly lowered her knickers back to the floor and sat down on the bench next to May, who was looking at any object in the room that wasn't Serena, especially that very intriguing pattern in the wood on the wall on the other side. "So, did you enjoy your performance?"

"I'm not talking to you."

After a few minutes, Harley and Cacturne's performance was complete, and the show was over. After some deliberation, the judges called all of the contestants back to the stage to present the podium. Serena knew she would only be one of 8 contestants out there, but somehow knew all eyes would be on her anyway.

May, ever so politely, stood just to the side of Serena, hoping that her poofy skirt could help block the view of Serena's cleanly-shaven vagina. It didn't help much, but the sentiment was very kind.

The judges stood center-stage, between the women stage right and the men stage left, and began their announcement.

"In third-place, with her exceedingly cute Combusken, May!"

May walked up, leaving Serena alone to cover herself, accepted the consolation ribbon, and went and stood with Chickly on the podium which had been placed behind the judges.

"In second-place, with his magnificently cute Slakoth, Asher!"

A man went and took his place on the podium as well.

"And in first place, stunning all of us with a performance the likes of which we've never seen, Serena and her Meowstic!"

Serena stood frozen in place. The spotlights turned to her. The whole crowd was applauding while staring at her naked body. She was expected to do something. How could she possibly move in this situation?

Eventually Serena managed the ability to walk over to the judges, noting that only the one woman judge was able to look her in the eye while the 2 men seemed to be wandering a little lower, but she accepted the Cute Ribbon, placed it on Meowstic, and then stood up on the podium, only then realising that the eye-level of the judges was now directly trained on her exposed vagina.

After what Serena would swear was the longest closing ceremony of her entire life (it was 5 minutes), she rushed into the changing room and pulled her clothes on as quickly as possible and put Meowstic back in her Heal Ball. She fought back tears as she thought about the humiliation she had just put herself through, and resolved to do even better at the other contests in order to move past it.May came in to comfort her, and asked what she planned to do next.

"I'm going to go to Mauville, find a boutique, and get some actual clothes to match with my Meowstic, and then we're going to go straight to Fallarbor for the second Contest of the Challenge, and win. No offense."

May's helpful smile suddenly dropped into a pitying frown. "Are you sure you want to continue the Challenge? You could always quit and come by another Season."

"No. I've started this, I have to see it through."

"Alright... well... I guess you probably don't know this, but there's one more contest rule we should probably tell you about. In a continuous Challenge, you're not allowed to change outfits between Contests. You have to wear the same one at every show."

Serena stared at May.