GC135

==Synopsis==
Rachel and her rivals compete for a spot in the battle rounds.
==Summary==
With the first appeal stage over and Rachel safely onto the second appeal stage, Rachel, Justin, and her mother sit down and have a dinner at a restaurant. Josephine introduces herself as a successful fashion designer in Santalune City. She mostly designs for models and actresses, but due to Diantha playing the role of actress, Kalos Queen, and Champion of Kalos, she had outfits made for performers. Rachel notes that because of Diantha's popularity, she is extremely difficult to defeat in a Master Class Showcase. 
Josphine interrogates Justin to gauge why he and Rachel have been traveling together until she asks Justin why Rachel never called home. Josephine is upset the only information she heard of with Rachel was when she saw her on television competing in contests. 
Josephine more seriously asks Justin why he chose to mentor Rachel instead of competing in contests himself. Justin replies that contests are his mother's passion, not his, but she drilled in as much knowledge into him as possible. He simply passed that knowledge onto Rachel. Josephine notes that Rachel has clearly made it to the Grand Festival with Justin's help, but notes that she was one of the bottom-scoring competitors. Justin actually has thoughts on that. 
Justin explains that Jigglypuff was magnificent but also "too much". The point of the appeal stage is to show off the Pokemon. Between the musical notes, rainbow sound waves, and actual singing itself, Jigglypuff was somewhere lost in the appeal. Justin says that simple is perfect and beautiful but he understands why Rachel and Jigglypuff pushed harder for their appeal: to show how much they had grown over the last year. Rachel asks why Justin did not say anything earlier. Justin says that it is because no matter how "low" Rachel scored, she is still in competition, just as much as Summer, one of the top scorerers. The purpose now is to learn from why Rachel was one of the lowest scorers and make sure she is one of the top performers tomorrow. More importantly, Justin insists that Rachel is ready simply on the firm fact that she is here. Josephine notes Justin is a pretty good mentor. 
After dinner, Rachel introduces all her Pokemon to her mother. Rachel then gives her Pokemon a pep talk about the second appeal stage, and she knows the strategy she will use.  
The day of the second appeal stage is had, and Lisia excites the crowd. Justin, Andrew, and Josephine sit in the audience while Rachel and her rivals are backstage. Lisia introduces the judges for the remainder of the event, including the guest judge Pryce of Mahogany Town, Johto, who is revealed to have helped introduce contests to Johto from Hoenn over fifty years ago. Lisia announces that the order of Coordinators in the second appeal stage will go in reverse order of their ranking in the first appeal stage, meaning the bottom scoring performers will perform first and the best performers will perform last. All Coordinators have three minutes to perform the appeals they need as they did on the first stage. With the announcements made, the second appeal stage begins. 
As one of the bottom-scoring performers, Rachel is among the first and she calls on Skitty who makes a grand entrance by flipping in the air before landing. Rachel has Skitty use Assist to the surprise of everyone except Justin. Assist becomes Marshtomp's Mud Shot, which Rachel finds perfect. Skitty immediately darts up the Mud Shot with Iron Tail, breaking away the attack with impressive speed. Skitty then uses Assist again, which becomes Minun's Spark. Skitty proceeds to dart around the field, coated in electricity. Rachel then throws a frisbee attached to her hip. Skitty chases after the disc and charges through it with her Spark, which results in a burst of light and electricity. To conclude their performance, Skitty spins while using a massive Blizzard to create a towering ice fortress with Skitty on top. 
Rachel's appeal earns a massive ovation, and she claims a score of 92. Andrew is surprised Assist worked in Rachel's favor due to the randomness of the move. Justin says Assist may be random but it's only a risk of the user does not know how to react once the move is made. Justin attests that after the Maisie Island Contest, Rachel and Skitty rehearsed Assist for every possible outcome. No matter what move Assist produced, Rachel had an appeal in mind and the judges clearly took note of Rachel's calmness, belief in Skitty, and mixing in Skitty's own attacks with the product of Assist, concluding with a massive display and proof of Skitty's own ability. Backstage, Andre admits it was a good performance. 
Andre is behind Rachel and he calls on a new Pokemon, Volbeat. Volbeat uses Double Team, and his clones cover the field. Volbeat and his clones all use Flash while floating and dancing across the stage. in a marvelous light show that shows off Volbat as the Firefly Pokemon. The clones fade and Volbeat lands on Andre's hand in a very fine performance. 
Several more high-scoring appeals are had. Magma Admin Courtney is still the competition, and she calls on a Vibrava. Vibrava uses Supersonic, then Screech, then a massive Boomburst. Three sonic attacks, each louder than the other with matching sound waves to show off Vibrava as the Vibration Pokemon. Despite being one of the favorites, Chazz was not the top scoring performer, placing in the Top 25. He calls on a Lucario. Lucario starts out by showing off its feet with an amazing Blaze Kick. Then, to the shock of everyone, Chazz Mega Evolves Lucario to releases a massive pulse of energy as a display of power and superiority. Lucario then remains still and calm. It produces a pink soothing aura of Heal Pulse that reaches the end of the stadium. 
Among the Top 10, Evyr is near the final performers. She calls on a Solrock. Solrock leaps into the a afternoon sun and shines with Cosmic Power. Solrock's body then ignites in flames and seems to grow of massive size with Flame Blitz, as if to become the sun itself. Summer is the fourth to last performer and she calls on Ludicolo. Summer commands Teeter Dance. Ludicolo remains still for a few seconds, which confuses the Contest Judges and the audience. However, Ludicolo begins to glow lime green. When ready, Ludicolo unleashes its stored energy and dances with Teeter Dance. The Teeter Dance is so powerful that it emits a lime green pulse. Everyone in the stadium is affected by the Teeter Dance and begin dancing with Ludicolo.
The final appeal is conducted by a coordinator with Walrein that freezes the stage with Sheer Cold. By then, everyone knows their scores but after an intermission the Top 32 Coordinators are shown on the overhead screen. The addition of Mega Evolution places Chazz in second place. Rachel is in sixth place. Summer and Evyr do not score in the top 10 but they are safely among the top fifteen coordinators, and Andre places 21st.
Lisiq introduces the tourney tree for the next day's set of battles. Rachel is granted a Top 8 seeding, so she will face one of the lower scorers. Rachel, Andre, Evyr, and Andre are all in the same half of the draw, causing Justin and Andrew to have a serious case of deja vu. More alarmingly, Summer and Evyr are slated to battle in the first round of battles.
==Major Events==
*Pryce of Mahogany Town acts as the guest judge for the Grand Festival
*Andre is revealed to have captured a Volbeat
*Evyr is revealed to have captured a Solrock
*Rachel, Andre, Evyr, and Summer advance to the battle rounds
*Summer and Evyr are slated to battle in the first round
For a list of all major events in this anime, please see Major Events (Grand Conquest). 
==Characters==
===Humans===
*Justin
*Rachel
*Andrew
*Summer
*Evyr
*Andre
*Josephine
*Lisia
*Chazz
*Juan
*Courtney (disguise)
*Mr. Suziko
*Mr. Contesta
*Nurse Joy
*Coordinators
*Audience
===Pokemon===
*Eevee (Justin's)
*Marshtomp (Rachel's)
*Minun (Rachel's)
*Jigglypuff (Rachel's)
*Skitty (Rachel's)
*Shuppet (Rachel's)
*Aipom (Andrew's)
*Meditite (Summer's)
*Ludicolo (Summer's)
*Solrock (Evyr's)
*Volbeat (Andre's)
*Ivysaur (Coordinator's)
*Butterfree (Coordinator's)
*Poliwhirl (Coordinator's)
*Politoed (Coordinator's)
*Dugtrio (Coordinator's)
*Totodile (Coordinator's)
*Illumise (Coordinator's)
*Pidgeot (Coordinator's)
*Ledian (Coordinator's)
*Delibird (Coordinator's)
*Larvitar (Coordinator's)
*Walrein (Coordinator's)
*Crobat (Coordinator's)
Category:Grand Conquest
Category:Grand Festival Episodes
Category:Episodes with Contests