Here it is, my first ever Fanfiction. Awesome right? I hope so. Anyways, I just hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it, and if not, well... I guess there's always next time right?
IMPORTANT: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM! except for that one time, but it didn't last very long... JUST KIDDING!
This is it: the lights, the crowd, the chilly winter air as hundreds of contestants walk alluringly into a large stadium; all of it breathtaking. Thousands upon thousands of fans litter the entire plaza, awaiting for the first round to begin; however, their excitement is put on hold as one of the announcers peers up the platform.
"Welcome!" he overpoweringly whelps into the microphone; the crowd thunders in response. The man smiles brightly and bares the microphone with both hands, "It is time for the annual Pokemon Championship to begin!" Again, the crowd roars from their stands, causing what appears to be a mini-earthquake within the concrete walls. Looking down from his podium, the man is very pleased to see how many contestants are participating this year. "I am glad to announce, that this year, we will be hosting the largest tournament in history, with over 600 Pokemon trainers! This is sure to be a blowout!" And with that said, the crowd goes wild; standing up from their seats, they clap. "We will begin the ceremony after these few messages from our sponsors! Trainers, if you will, please go to the Pokemon Enrollment Center to enter yourself into the tournament! Remember, the first round will begin at eight o'clock sharp; don't be late!" After finishing, the announcer leaves the podium, and the entire crowd erupts into even louder cheers. Soon after, all of the trainers exit the stadium, drowning the cheers into shallow echoes.
Outside, Ash Ketchum is walking side-by-side with his greatest rival, Gary Oak. "I'm gonna win this, Ashy-boy," says Gary unexpectedly.
Ash instantly halts; grasping his rival by the shoulder, he slings him around like a rag doll, "Ha," he mocks, "There isn't any way I'm gonna lose to you, Gary." The two boys stay standing toe-to-toe with one another: scowls on their faces -anyone can feel the static eroding between them.
After what feels like minutes, Gary mischievously smirks, "We'll see about that," and leaves Ash by his lonesome.
Shaking his head in utter disgust, Ash huffs out a heap of smoke from his throat, "That guy..." he snarls underneath his steamed breath, watching Gary continue down the sidewalk.
"Ash!" comes a very familiar feminine voice from behind.
Without bothering to see who it is, he chuckles, "Now who could that be?" Ash then turns around with a big smile pasturing his face, "Misty! Brock! Long time no see!" He waves to his best friends as they run towards him. His cheeks quickly begin sweltering up as they approach, seeing them always brings an uprising to his spirit, and since this is the most important day of his life, he really does need it.
When the dynamic-duo finally catch up to their pal, Misty lays a rib crushing bear hug on him, "I can't believe you actually made it!" she says, trying not to sound the least bit surprised. Knowing Ash, she understands how that settles with him. Answer being, poorly.
"Me too," he chokes out. Along with his spine, his entire chest cavity feels crushed in-between her monstrous hug. "Mis...mis...ty." He tries tapping her on the shoulder to release him, but it doesn't work.
"Well, just don't blow it," comes Brock's interjection, breaking up the hug between the two, relieving Ash of his misery, "But I doubt you will," he adds, "Everyone has full confidence in you Ash, and I know you won't disappoint us." He then gives him a stern pat on the back.
Still recovering from Misty's man hug, Ash fixes himself, and smiles graciously. His friends mean the world to him, and without them, this opportunity would've never existed, and he knows that. Everything he's accomplished, he owes to them. And looking at them right now, Ash says, "Thanks guys... for everything."
They nod, "You're welcome," comes their responses. However, they aren't fully aware of what he's thanking them for, but whatever it is, they're just glad he actually said thank you for once.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Misty asks, pointing to the tall building a few clicks ahead, "You better go and sign up. You don't wanna be late for the first round do you?"
A drip of sweat sprinkles down Ash's brow, "You're right Misty! I gotta go guys, see ya!" He waves a final time before rushing off.
Now by themselves, Misty and Brock watch as their best pal runs off to begin his most difficult challenge yet. "Do you really think he's gonna do good?" Misty asks cautiously, turning over to Brock.
"Guaranteed," he replies without hesitation, "Even if he doesn't win, Ash will put up a hell of a fight, and that's all we can ask for." Misty simply nods, and they then head back towards the stadium.
Meanwhile, a peculiar boy lays watching from atop a tree as the three friends depart. 'So, that's Ash Ketchum?' he asks himself, knowing full well the answer. The boy chuckles slightly, and springs down the tree, "This year's tournament is gonna be interesting." He then leads himself to the sidewalk, and latches his eyes onto Ash's friends, "Interesting indeed..." and follows them sparingly behind.
At the Pokemon Enrollment Center, Ash waits anxiously behind a dozen or so people, all of them Pokemon trainers, and he takes note of everyone there. However, after a little surveillance, he finds himself a little disappointed, mainly because no one he knows -excluding Gary- is here. But what was he expecting? Only the most prestige trainers make it this far, and if he's honest with himself, most of the trainers he's fought were nothing short of mediocre; so, of course they aren't here. Anyways, with that aside, Ash notices that the line has moved up, and he takes his rightful spot as fifth in line.
=0=
"Come on Brendan hurry up in there!"
"Give me a freaking second will ya, May!" Brendan shouts from behind the bathroom door.
May shakes her head viciously, squeezing her fists with an almighty force, and bashes them against the door, "Aren't you forgetting I have a tournament?" she reminds him, threateningly. One more wrong move by Brendan and she might kill him.
"And aren't you forgetting I'm in the bathroom?" says he, who is about to get a royal ass kicking by the Pokemon fury, May.
She literally begins to boil under the spell of vexation, "Damn it, Brendan! Leave it to you to screw everything up for me!" In an effortless attempt to calm down, May starts to pace back and forth, gnawing at her tongue with each step. Why now, of all times, did he have to take a dump?
Hearing the restless pitter-patter of his friend's footsteps from outside, Brendan sighs and says, "Listen, just go ahead and sign up, and I'll meet you at the Pokemon Center, okay?"
Paying no regard to what he just mentioned, May stops when a light-bulb finally clicks on in her head, "I got it!" she proclaims to the heavens, "I'll go ahead and sign up, and meet you back at the Pokemon Center! What do you think?"
Not to his surprise, Brendan just sighs and goes along with it like usual, "Genius," he puffs. And without anything more than a single nod, May zooms out the door of the mini-mart, leaving her friend alone in peace. Brendan winches out a sly pout before hearing the faint ding from the store's entrance. "Thank God," he mumbles, and focuses his attention back to where it needs to be, the toilet.
Running as fast as she can, May sees a very large building in the horizon. 'That must be it.' she thinks, taking in a rusty gulp. In all honesty, she is having mixed feelings about the tournament. Sure, she is excited, but she can't help having a slight, nauseating feeling saturate her gut. However, luckily by the time she arrives at the front doors, her jitterbugs vanish as quickly as they came, and she bursts through the glass doors to her destiny.
When inside, she is welcomed by dozens of trainers scurrying around chaotically in their pursuits to sign up. It's actually quite surprising to see so many young trainers accommodating the tournament this year, however for May, it doesn't matter how many there are because she is determined to beat them all. But before her wild fantasy can come true, she first needs to find a place to sign up. Which by all means, isn't going to be easy with all these people.
After awhile of constant scanning, she comes to the realization that every single sign-up booth is packed to the bone. Slightly annoyed, May decides that the best course of action is to go to the nearest one. 'Lane two...' she thinks to herself, shuffling over to it. In reality, there isn't too many kids in this particular lane -in fact, there's only four- but May isn't exactly what you'd call a patient person. "Hey kid," she says, thumping a young boy on the back of the head, "Let me in front."
"Ow!" Taking of his cap, he shifts his gaze over to her, "What was that for?"
Not being in the friendliest of moods -like usual- May elaborates a sense of annoyance with the younger boy, and says, "I said get out of my way," and harshly shoves him aside. But to her dismay, that little charade does not go unnoticed by a certain trainer.
"Hey what's your problem?" rings an unknown voice from the side.
Shocked, May swaps her focus to the voice's direction, and after seeing the guy who had spoken to her in such a way, she asks, "Who are you?"
The boy approaches her, "Doesn't matter," he snaps, "Why are you picking on him?"
"I wasn't picking on him; he was-" she looks down at the young kid -who couldn't be more than seven years old- and sees his eyes clogging up with tears. Having her better nature kick in, May sighs and moves from her spot, allowing the boy to pass; he complies with her gesture, and wipes away his stained cheeks, sniffling subtlety. "There," she scoffs, cloaking herself with a hateful look, "Happy now?"
"Yep." And without muttering another word, the mysterious male starts to wonder off, but stops to look back one more time, "Oh, and by the way, my name is Ash Ketchum." He then offers a smirk before leaving the building.
May grips the back of her bandanna, and begins talking to herself, "Well..." she tightens its knot, smiling impishly, "I look forward to battling you, Ash Ketchum." She then slowly cascades into a dream of how their battle will play out, with her of course winning.
"NEXT!" calls out the registrar, snapping May out of her daydream.
"Oh right," she chuckles, shamelessly, "Gotta sign up first," and realigns herself back into line.
=0=
In all retrospect, Brendan knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that the more time he spends with May, the more his sanity slowly starts to diminish. In fact, looking at the past year, has been nothing but hellish for the two of them. Conceivably enough however, he swears that May's fiery demeanor is the main source to their problems, and if she could somehow change, he might actually enjoy her company. Now of course, after knowing all that, one might ask, "Well, why doesn't he just leave?" If only things were that simple... Every time he's ever considered leaving, a presence so evil and loathsome unveils its gruesome head, persuading him to add substance to the storm and endure it. It is under this influence that causes Brendan to fear his own conscience, and he assures himself that it will eventually lead him to his death. He just doesn't know when...
"Finally," Brendan slugs open the market's door ... ding..., "Time to go set up." He heads down the busy street with a happy smirk plastering his face. He's actually very excited to see his friend in action, and who knows, maybe she'll give him a shout out or two if she wins. Or not, he laughs thinking about it, knowing May, she'll probably hog all the glory herself. Oh, the joys of having a complete spaz as a friend.
Within minutes, Brendan is back in front of the Pokemon Stadium, getting pumped for the first round, which by the way, is only a hour and a half away. "Who's ready for some Pokemon epicness!" he hears coming from the large crowd surfacing the middle of the plaza. They all cheer, rooting and tooting. Brendan smiles, 'Damn,' he thinks, 'This is gonna be awesome.' Adjusting the strap on his bag with a quick tug, he begins his short journey to the ginormous Colosseum before him.
On his way, he is halted by a large plaque shadowing the entrance, "The official Pokemon Championship Stadium," he reads aloud, "Where all are welcome to enjoy the blockbusters known as Pokemon!" Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Brendan continues in, absorbing the sheer size of it. Shaped like a dome, the sun shines like a dream on the inside, and adding to its foundation, are the hundreds of columns layering the upper portion of the spectacle, obviously being where the visitors sit. However, the most important part is the bottom half, grazed with blood, sweat, and lightly colored dirt, rests the heart of the stadium: the ring, or like others call it, Big Poppa's House.
He walks up the steep steps leading to the visitor stands, and sits on the very first row. 'Best seat in the house.' He slouches into a comfortable position, and rests his feet up against the railing. "Perfect..." It's always a bonus to arrive early before the people pack in. "You better not slack, May," he speaks, and shuts his eyes, embracing the warmth of the sun.
A few minutes go by, and for some odd reason, he begins to feel he forgot something, but what?
"Oh shit! I forgot about, May!" He jumps up, and rushes down the steps. 'How on Earth could I forget about, May? For Heaven's sake, how much stupider can I get?' He mercilessly begins harassing himself, bypassing the crowd, and nearly stumbles a couple of times, "Stupid rocks," he snorts, and tries his best to pick up the pace. If he's lucky, she might let him off without too many bruises, but probably not.
=0=
'Where is he?' May starts to wonder. She peeks out the window of the Pokemon Center, but sees nothing. As her rage tips its climax, she slams open the door, and storms out to the sidewalk, skeptically searching around for her bozo friend, who was supposed to be here by now. All she sees are a few bicyclers racing down the street. "Damn it!" she yells, preparing to pull her hair out. The entire scene brings attention to a passing biker.
He toys his bike to a sudden halt, "You okay over there?" he asks. Removing his helmet, he looks over to her, and reveals a thick pair of Sporting Good sunglasses.
May growls like a demon, "Just peachy," she spits out with more venom than a viper. Her eyes muster up a willow of intimidation, and the biker notices right away.
Taken aback by the girl's fortuitous hostility, the biker loses all sense of his words. A moment passes. Flashing a nervous smile finally, he hastily nuzzles his helmet back onto his head ...snap... comes the clicking under his chin, "Well, I guess since you're alright, I'll go," and ships off on his bike.
During the duration of his nimble get-a-way, May stays standing there, having a confused expression boat its way onto her face, 'What's his problem?'
"May! May! I'm sorry I'm late!" It was obviously Brendan, who was combing up the sidewalk at an exceedingly fast rate.
"Speak of the devil!" May shouts. Even though she's upset with him for being late, she finds the way he plays it out adorably funny.
Panting like a dog, he arrives without a moment to spare, "I'm-" he gulps, trying to catch his breath, "I'm sorry for being late; the time just got away from me." He looks down towards the sidewalk, getting ready for one of May's dramatic episodes.
"Geez Brendan," she says; Brendan looks up, "What' gotten into you?"
"I-I-,"
"Don't sweat it Brendan, I'm not mad at you." She smiles, and pats her friend on the shoulder, feeling the sweat soaking his shirt, "Ya thirsty?" she asks, "I bet after that run you are." She reaches into her pouch -that's snugged nicely around her waist- and pulls out the holy liquid, "Here," she says, offering it to him.
Brendan snatches it from her, but does so with a puzzled look. "You didn't poison this shit did you?" he asks, looking discreetly at the water bottle.
May acts surprised, "Me? Of course not! Why?"
He shrugs, "Well, I'm just not used to you being like this."
"Like this?" she asks.
"Yeah," he says, gesturing to all of her, "This."
She bursts into laughter, "You're crazy, you know that Brendan?"
'I could say the same thing about you too, wacko.' he thinks to himself, watching her snort in laughter.
Eventually calming down, May swipes away the tears of joy streaming down her eyes, "Whelp," she says, clasping her hands together as if to say something else, but instead, ends up walking past him.
"Where are you going?" he asks her.
Refusing to stop, she looks back, "Gotta go to the stadium for the ceremony! Ya coming?"
"Oh yea, I totally forgot," he says, jogging up beside her, "Also, thanks for the water." He pops open the cap and takes a refreshing swig.
May grins, "Don't mention it." The two friends continue down the block, and Brendan makes it out without a single smack. "Oh right, forgot." SMACK.
"Ow! What was that for, May?" Brendan asks, rubbing his throbbing head, "You made me spill some water!" He looks down at his damp shirt and groans, immediately screwing back on the lid before any more surprises.
"That's for being late!" she tells him, laughing.
"Oh God..." he mumbles.
"What was that?"
"Nothing... nothing," he assures her, having a playful look in his eye. Yep, his sanity is slipping alright, but maybe it's a good thing.