A life changing tournament.

Two young women rode into town. Each of them owned a beautiful rapidash. One was pure white with red to white flames and the other was black with white to blue flames. Both pokémon were unusually large for their kind, 6ft at the shoulder and both had one red and one blue eye. The pokémon were brothers and the trainers had met when they'd caught them as little ponyta years ago. They'd separated, but the tournament had drawn both of them to Egypt. Now they'd met again last week and had been riding towards the palace ever since. Registration to the tournament was at the palace gate and that was where these two young ladies were heading.

Once there they got off and recalled their rapidash. Joanna was trainer in fire type pokémon and had some really nice specimen by now. She herself had long straight ginger red hair, reaching half way down her back, pale skin and two almond shaped sort of big piercing blue eyes. She was dressed in a simple dress and a cloak with a hood as protection from the sun. She had twelve pokémon. Rapidash, Charizard(m), Ninetales, Torkoal, Magcargo, Camerupt, Houndoom, Blaziken, Infernape, Arcanine, Magmar and a second Charizard(f).

The other young woman's name was Eva, she didn't specialize and had been training pokémon most of her life. In fact her life had been saved by one. Now she carried a total of twenty-four pokémon. They were a big family and everyone had their own task. This girl had a slight hunched over posture and was by many considered to be odd. A She had a slender frame with lean muscles and very little fat. Long straight jet black hair, reaching to mid-waist, which currently hung in a messy braid over her right shoulder. She had two big, almond shaped black eyes and her skin was as pale as that of her friend. She too wore a simple dress and cloak, but it seemed to be made of silk. Her pokémon are: Smeargle, Noctowl, Togetic, Rapidash, Ninetales, Chinchou, Swampert, Pikachu, Venusaur, Roselia, Froslass, Lucario, Muk, Crobat, Flygon, Alakazam, Mr.Mime, Gallade, Ariados, Butterfree, Scizor, Dragonite, Absol and Skarmory. For some she'd spend over a year tracking them before being able to catch one. A hard task, but it had paid off.

Both of them joined the line. It was a long line and fortunately their cloaks protected them from the sun. After about half an hour they signed their names in and then it was off to find a place to sleep. Neither bothered with the Inns, those would be over flooded. Instead they found a shallow cave at the bank of the Nile and set up camp there.

Atem, The next Pharaoh of Egypt and the priests that were around him, They all lived in the palace However Atem and Seth were closer then the rest, they had a special bond almost like brothers, Although they were completely different, Atem soft hearted and heir to the thrown. Seth, arrogant to the max, but if you got to know him, he could be o.k.

Atem was a hansom man, He was also the prince of Egypt, Although tradition stood as the parents wold arrange the marriage and the prince and princess would 'live with it' But the princess that was chosen for him at birth was. Not too much liked by the people of Egypt and they complained, The princess was dismissed and then the a contest was put on to find the next perfect bride for their prince.

Seth, One of Atem's priests An also good looking man, Although where Atem is nice and soft hearted, Seth is more arrogant and cold However being one of the priests meant that he was to watch and not be heard, witch he was o.k. with because it was a great honor to be on the priests but still, the amount of girls there were coming to this thing, his eyes couldn't help wondering around.

Soon the contest was about to start, All of the contestants had arrived and were gathering out side the palace as the Pharaoh stood on a high point and talked to the crowd. Atem stood in the back of the room and shook his head, he wasn't exactly happy with this arranged marriage but he learned to live with it, Seth stood at his place next to the pharaoh in his priests cloak. And all Atem could do is watch as all of the girls stood there thinking of how they were going to be the 'next queen of Egypt' This thought was a thought Atem constantly pushed away.

Well not all. Eva really hadn't come for becoming the next queen of Egypt. But her weight in gold seemed like a nice price. She was wearing her hooded cloak and hadn't taken the hood off. Where most girls seemed to be showing off their physical beauty she didn't. The camp was all set up for later. This contest was so big there was just no way it could be decided in just one day. She was sitting in a shaded corner of the palace courtyard among the other girls, waiting for the opening ceremony to start.

Joanna had taken the hood from her cloak off and was standing behind Eva, leaning against the wall in the shadow. Her long ginger red hair showing, which was a rare trade among Egyptians, yet she wasn't Egyptian. She was born way up north and had started her travels there, had gone south because she didn't like the cold winter. she'd always like the warmth of fire and for that reason she more or less fell into training fire type pokémon. The ceremony should start soon. She was a traveler at heart and hadn't really thought about settling down yet. She too liked the idea of winning her weight in gold.

Atem knew what he had to do, He walked out of the room and on to the podium to give the contest the 'princes blessing' "Welcome all to our humble land, we have in our hearts you like it as much as we do. As for living experiences, From the royal family to you all hotels in the area are now free to stay in as much as you would like while the contest is on" He couldn't believe he was actually saying these things, But it was what his mother and father wanted. "Down the road there is a large building, that is where the contest will be held, It is normal rules, just keep in mind what the prize is" He said this with a smirk but inside, he wished he didn't have to say it at all

Seth was still at his place when Atem took took the podium, At that point Seth moved to directly behind Atem to stand, after all being a priest and his friend he kind of felt it was right to stand there, just in case. After the speech was over Atem wanted to retire for a few hours, after all the winner was not going to be pick for a few days at least... unless some of them were really that bad. Seth chuckled to himself over this thought but didn't voice it, juts in case Atem was offended

The contest house was still closed when most of the trainers got there, but as soon as there was a sort of line the doors flew open and the girls were allowed in, the room was luxurious, And was clear that it had been designed by Egyptians with with all the different hieroglyphics around, Soon the contest judges stood at the fount of the large room "well ladies, please step forward and choose your event"

Eva walked over to battle. Her pokémon had been trained for that. Weather they were cute or not had never mattered before. Not that many girls chose battle it seemed. Well she didn't care for that, she just would fight and win. Soon the lines had formed and now what?

Joanna followed Eva. She didn't really know much about other then battle and her pokémon were trained for it. They were all trained to be tough, smart, fast and strong in their own special way. A good trainer would bring out the best in his or her pokémon and Joanna was quite good at that.

Although the other options were listed the main one that would be chosen would be battle, this was know from the start. Once the lines were formed a man stood above them looking down, soon after they had all quieted down he spoke "good after noon ladies" said a voice "the battle pairings will be as shown" a whole bunch of names were put up on the screen. While the girls all looked at where they were and who they were against. then the voice came back "There are thirty room equipped for battle, the room number and time are displayed after the pairing names that will be all, good luck

Atem sat in a room almost next to the battle arena "so much time wasted, i couldn't just choose my own could i.... No it has to be done the hard way" He sighed and walked out of the room to see who was fighting first "well i guess there is no turning back now, i think that might show some weakness" He dressed himself up as he should be dressed and walked out of the room and into the stands to watch the battle that was about to take place 'so much time, so much effort, god i hate parents' he thought to himself as he watched one of the rounds start

Seth was elected one of the judges, He liked this idea, but at the same time hated it, after all he would be taken all the way down to the battle field and then would have to remember all of the rules, well is he was going to be forced to do this he guessed that he would probably have to atleast look like he was enjoying it, if not how his sake then for the Pharaoh's But untill the match he was judging started he just remained in the rest room, sitting in one of the chairs looking out of the desert

Eva was up first. Her opponent had to choose her pokémon first and chose for bellossom. She thought for a moment, bellossom's special ability was chlorophyl and that was a big pain in the ass on a sunny day like this one. Eva released her scizor. He should be able to deal with the speed no problem and at the same time insect pokémon had an advantage over grass types. The match began and her opponent wasn't too bad, but even with chlorophyl scizor was quicker and the attacks were carried out with speed and precision, as well as dodging the moves of the other. After a few minutes scizor had bellossom knock out.

Joanna was up next. Her opponent should have chosen cute and was a beginner at best. But her opponent got to choose last. To be safe she chose for her charizard. Her opponent chose for squirtle. This could get interesting. Though fire type were at a disadvantage against water types, water pokémon were weak against flying types and charizard was a flying type too. But it wasn't much of a match really. Two minutes was all it took to take down the squirtle.

"The final rounds will be" the man said again reading out four names "Eva and Roxane, Joanna and Julia" the man said from his point above the crowd. "good luck ladies and i do hope you win" the man got down and walked into Atem's room "That was it, the last round has been read out" he then looked at Atem.

Atem was happy but at the same time wanted it all to be over "Thanks Jer, well i guess i had better go watch the last two battles huh" he said shanking his head and grabbing his stuff to go out there with "Alright where are they battling" he said looking at the direction post "Oh they are right next to each other..." he again shook head head "o.k i will go too...." he looked at the direction post again before heading off to the stadium. Once he got there he walked up stairs to his viewing room to see what was going on and who was winning

Seth was already there, In the stands, Waiting... watching, After all a contestant had caught his eye through out this tournament and he wanted to see how she was doing, it was of coarse Joanna that had caught his eye, He could he not look at her, after all, she was quite cute, He liked watching her battle, it was rather amazing to see how she handled her self with her pokemon, It just sucked that he couldn't do anything, just in case she won and was Atem's 'prize'

Eva grinned. This was a double duel. Both trainers had to release their pokémon at the same time so no one had an unfair advantage. Ev had chosen for Gallade and Absol while her opponent had chosen for Gardevoir and Medicham. Gallade and Medicham were both of the exact same type and seemed more motivated then anything. The battle was in high speed with a lot of teleporting, dodging and missed punches and moves. Roxanne was quite good, but not good enough. It was time to take it up a nodge. So far it had been two seperate battles and Eva was the first to succesfully use a combination and kept that up at a high tempo. That was too much for Roxanne and her pokémon went knock out a few minutes later.

Joanna grinned, this would be lovely. Her opponent released a pikachu and bulbasaur while she upted for magmar and magcargo. Her magcargo was quite big for its kind and magmar was so stubborn it didn't know what losing meant anymore. The battle was fierce with combinations flying all over. But Joanna's main target had been bulbasaur while Magmar kept pikachu's electric attacks at bay with an air lense. It heated the air so much it broke off the electric attacks. Once bulbasaur was knock out pikachu was easy. She won and wondered how her friend had done. She'd see in the finals, but she thought it was most likely Eva to meet her in the next round.

Atem saw both of the battles 'uh, the last round. Why!' he thought to himself as he saw the winners walk out of the stands "Seth" he said looking at his friend, Although he hated the thought of having a pre arranged marriage, He wanted to meet both of the trainers before the next battle, Seth came over "I want to meet them, Both of them" he said before turning back to the stadium and then heading back to his room.

Seth nodded and then headed down towards the man yelling out the pairs so that he could direct the girls to Atem's privet room "Hey!" he said to the man who was assigned to read out the pairings "Atem wants to meet them, both of the finalists" the man nodded and stood back on the podium

"Ladies in the finals" he said looking at them "The prince wishes to meet you" he pointed to Seth "He will take you to the prince, Enjoy your time, for after that you two will face off"

Eva followed the guard who lead her to Atem's private room. On the way from the other battlefield Joanna joined them with another guard. The guards left when the priest approached. "So you made it." Eva said, it was more a statement then a question. Joanna just nodded. Eva was still wearing her hood while Joanna had taken it off. The y looked at each other and they both knew they were thinking the same thing, why?

Eva looked at the prince. He was just a boy, how old, fifteen maybe? "Good." Eva said. He was acting quite mature for his age. Getting married off, it probably wasn't something he liked a lot, she knew she wouldn't.

"Fine." Joanna said. A young man, more like a boy. She felt sorry for him he had ot be married off. He was pretty good looking though, that she had to admit.

"I'm Eva." She said simply, then just stayed silent. She was thinnking about the final match, which pokémon to use and what strategy would work best against her friend. She decided that gallade and absol would be the best choises.

"And I'm Joanna." She said She too was wondering about what pokémon to use and which Eva would use. She was sure it would be one of her water types at the very least, probably the chinchou. Or not, it was hard to tell.

Atem didn't really know what to say next "well.... My name is Atem" he paused, He felt stupid, of coarse they would have known that "Erm, I will see the winner after the match" he said with a smile and then showing them to the door. Once they were gone he walked over to his chair and slumped into it "Well that was stupid" he said shaking his head "oh well I guess i will get to know them later"

The announcer stood atop the podium "Ladies, it's time" he said when they came into the room "good luck" The doors opened and the stadium was revealed to them.

Seth stood outside of Atems room and watched as the girls left, Once they had gone he walked in "What did you learn?" But Atem just shook his head "You knwo if your going to live with one of them, you may as well get to know them" he shook his head and left outside to watch the match that was about to start.

"Well that was absolutely pointless." Eva said, voicing both their oppinions after the door closed and they walked into the Arena. She got ready to start. They would have to release their pokémon at the same time again. She grabbed the two right pokéballs. She looked at Joanna and the two girls locked eyes, bth ready to start.

Joanna nodded, she agreed with Eva, meeting the prince had been pointless. But now she had a battle to win. She grabbed two pokéballs. One of charizard(m), the other of her houndoom. SHe looked at Eva and locked eyes with the girl, ready to begin their match.