Okay, so this is my take on a fan fiction in pokemon that would be a good group traveling one, I hate reading stories for pokemon only to never finish them because I get bored, it always ends up revolving only around the romantic lives of the trainers/coordinators/breeders and they then make it into this big group thing where everyone has someone and I realized, that's not what pokemon is about. Pokemon is an action story filled with adventures.
So… I've decided to make a pokemon story, not a remake of a movie, but a new adventure, one that hopefully everyone will enjoy, yes, it will revolve around May, but only slightly more than the others, I'm so sick of it always revolving around everyone else, so no hating because this is her time to shine.
Thank you, now I do not own pokemon, the characters, the legendaries, or anything associated with pokemon, if I use a concept from another anime or something of the sort (like a character that I have borrowed the designs for, I will disclaim them as well.)
Now… on with the story.
Pokemon, wild creatures that roam the land, everywhere you turn, they're there. Millions of them roam in the wild, even more in the captivity of the people we have come to call trainers, who live side by side with pokemon in harmony, training them to become stronger, so they can be the top Pokemon Trainer.
There are so many species of pokemon that it's hard to count them, catch them all if you dare. We have pokemon as old as the planet, and we have some not originally from here, some can move continents with a single stop, or create waves higher than skyscrapers with just the flick of a fin, some fly high in the atmosphere, watching for any more space pokemon. Pokemon who sleep for a million years and some that are far older than that, they all watch over us.
They're everywhere, for the deep forests, and the jungle, to the highest mountain cliffs in the world, to the deepest parts of the oceans, some even live in the hearths of volcanoes.
Not everyone has to be trainer; some are coordinators, people who show off their pokemon's skills in appeal rounds and battle rounds, showing off how much they've taught their pokemon, and how well they've been trained.
However, after all of the adventures that our heroes, Ash Ketchum, Brock Pewter, Misty Waterflower, May Maple, Max Maple, Gary Oak, Paul Shinji, Brendan Birch, Drew Hayden, Dawn Berlin, Iris Uneva, and Cilan, our heroes, along with Solidad, Harley, Zoey, Ursula, Leaf, Lyra, Barry, Hilda, Ritchie, and Kenny have decided to have a nice long reunion after the Unova adventures for a while, not to mention see Professor Oak's newest discoveries, little do they know that their greatest challenges lie in wait, all of their skills and talents will be put to the test… And they'll need all of the help that they can get.
May sighed as the sun lightly kissed her face, her Blaziken warbled softly in his throat, appreciating the warm rays intensely. She wore a black page boy cap, with a white scarf much like Dawn's old scarf's, with a maroon turtleneck tank top, with a white hip-pack, and a white skirt that belled out and was the same length as her old biker shorts from her Johto outfit, a white jacket that cut off underneath her breasts with shoulder pads and sleeves that went down to her thumbs, her old gloves snug on her hands, black socks went to mid calf with red and black boots that looked like the ones female magma grunts wore. She looked, in a word, revitalizing.
She traveled down the worn path into Pallet Town, Kanto, a skip to her step, Max, her younger brother, scoffed at this and walked slightly behind her, much more sedated, he wore black shorts befitting of an eleven year old, and one of Brendan's old red and black shirts, his yellow pokenav out, the light of the screen reflecting off of his glasses.
"May," he called, annoyance dripping through the single word, causing the chipper brunette to look back at him, blue eyes sparkling, "ever since you won that Sinnoh Grand Festival, you've been skipping all over the place, please stop, it's getting annoying." He stated, shifting his glasses higher up on his nose.
"Oh, Max, I've waited four years of training my pokemon and working to the bone for this, allow me to enjoy this moment." She said, smiling at him, blue eyes sparkling, "I'm finally an elite, I want to relish this before getting right back to work! So I can be on par with Solidad!"
"Bla-a-a-aze! Ekin!" Her starter pokemon agreed, the fire around his wrists blazing hot and bright as he remembered his successful battle against Drew's Gallade, and then his victory over Solidad's Pigeot.
May smiled, "That's right, we deserve to be able to bask in our glory for just a little bit, Max." She smiled, "Besides, that's why we're arriving last, so we don't take Ash's thunder, no pun intended." She giggled whenever she remembers her friend's Pikachu would occasionally thundershock him in irritability.
Max May, and Blaziken crested over a hill, looking down at Pallet Town. They picked up their pace, heading towards a lab, slightly out of the way of the few houses, it was very quaint, but it was Kantonese, nothing else could be expected.
"Wow! It's such an adorable town!" May stated, clasping her hands, but she soon dragged herself out of it, feeling in her hip-pack for her five ribbons, and the extravagant ribbon she received at the Sinnoh Grand Cup, along with a trophy, but it was merely for show.
However, May planned to keep it in her case of Sinnoh ribbons, and put it on display in her room right next to her Johto ones, up there with the Kanto and Hoenn ribbons. She refused to wear any of her ribbons, even the Terracotta one, which was put in its own space, considering it was the first contest she fought in against Ash, who was technically her mentor at the time, right in between the Kanto and the Johto ribbons.
May didn't even realize they were at Professor Oak's laboratory until Max was knocking on the door. May knew they were the last ones to arrive, merely because May had to go home, visit her family, and then rest for a bit, and then travel to Pallet Town, and she felt strangely anxious, she knew all her friends and rivals were here, she hadn't seen them since the end of the Sinnoh Grand Festival, seeing as how she hadn't stayed for the after party.
The door opened, blue stared into purple. "Hello?" She asked, smiling.
"You're-" The surly looking purple headed boy was interrupted by a certain cacturn-dressed rival of May's.
"Is that my little May Maple Cookie?" He tried to hug May, but the officially weirded-out girl dodged and Harley came face to face with a very intimidating Blaziken, who flared the flames around his wrists in irritability. The purple headed man, who had battled against the Blaze pokemon many a time, turned tail and hurried back into the lab, screaming "May-dear is hear~!"
May, Max, Blaziken, and the surly boy walked inside the lab. The boy turned to the brunette, "Is that your Blaziken?" May looked over, nodding, "It looks strong."
"Thank you, Blaziken's been my partner for four years now." Said Pokemon vocalized its approval, causing the brunette to smile. "May I ask for your name?"
"Paul Shinji, I'm one of Ash's rivals from Sinnoh." Paul introduced, his deep violet eyes boring into May's cobalt ones. "I-"
"MAY!" May looked up in surprise as a blue, white, black, and pink blur raced up and engulfed the girl in a hug, an Empoleon following close behind.
"Dawn!" Said girl smiled and looked up at her so-called "Danna". "Is that Piplup?" Said bird puffed out its chest, standing proudly in front of Blaziken
"Well, it was Piplup, but in Hoenn, there were a lot of water stones, Piplup was excited to evolve the first time, and then the second time happened right before the Grand Festival." Dawn smiled, "It really helped, and Empoleon is by far stronger than when you last saw him."
Blaziken and Empoleon stood beside their owners, warbling softly to one another, talking over their victories over in the regions they went to. After all, the two had not seen their counterpart since the Wallace Cup at Lake Valor.
Dawn ended up turning to Paul, "So… where is everybody? I arrived only a few minutes ago." She asked, her new outfit making her look even more radiant than any body remembered her being, a plain blue bandana holding back her naval-length navy blue hair, loose bangs falling into her eyes. Her customary black and white shirt sat above shorts that were very Hilda-is, red goggles sitting above the bandana with a matching scarf wrapped around her neck, flowing down to the end of her shorts, black and white gloves on her hands, so her hands didn't get calluses' from handling poke balls. Navy and cobalt socks started below her knees and went down to white, red, gray, and blue trainers.
Paul wore the same outfit from his Sinnoh Travels, he shrugged, "Probably out back with all of Ketchum's pokemon, I don't know… I've stayed inside for the most part." He stuffed his hands in his pockets, "If ya want though, I can take you to them."
Dawn smiled at the disgruntled boy, cerulean eyes meeting the boy's own amethyst ones, before he quickly looked away and started strolling towards the back door. The two bird pokemon following their trainers. May smile as she came upon the familiar scene of the couple of acres of land behind Professor Oak's lab, swarms of pokemon sat around. (View profile to see what exactly each trainer has as a pokemon team.)
May saw Drew, Solidad, Harley, Ursula, Kenny, and Zoey clustered around one area, laughing over something, right next to them was Misty, Ritchie, Ash, Gary, Cilan, Iris, Barry, Tracy, Lyra, Leaf, and Hilda crowded right next to them, all of their pokemon crowded around them.
"MAY!" May looked around, until she spotted a familiar white hat waving, "MAY MAPLE! FROM PETALBURG CITY AND DAUGHTER OF NORMAN MAPLE GYM LEADER OF THE PETELBURG CITY GYM, I CHALLENGE YOU TO A BATTLE!" The boy challenged, his orange, black and green attire drawing everyone's attention. A Swampert, right beside him, voiced its approval.
"BRENDAN!" May copied him, "BRENDAN BIRCH FROM TWINLEEF TOWN AND SON OF PROFESSOR BIRCH POKEMON RESEARCHER I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE TO BATTLE ME!" She yelled back, a very loud 'Blaaaaaaaaaaze!' sounding from behind her. Ash cheered his approval and Dawn's eyes sparkled at the prospect of seeing May battle again.
The boy continued running towards her, "Alright then Swampert, let's start it off with a Mud Bomb!" The blue and orange mud fish pokemon opened its mouth, spraying brown sludge-looking mud towards Blaziken.
"Blaziken, dodge! Then MEGAKICK IT!" May added, causing her fire pokemon's wrists to flare up in red-hot flames before it quickly jumped above the sludge before landing and using a quick attack, which was customary to get closer to use Mega kick, its feet were already glowing an iridescent blue as it raced towards the swamp fish.
"Swampert, use Brick Break!" He yelled, running up closer, fluffy white had and ruby eyes bouncing with his excitement. The arms of the blue pokemon glowed orange, and as Blaziken neared, Swampert swung it's arms, matching Blaziken's Mega kick. It was a stalemate as the two tried to make the other give in.
Everybody watched as the strange boy battled May, "Okay Swampert break it off and use Hydro Pump!"
"Blaziken dodge it by jumping, then spin and use overheat!" May commanded. The pokemon did as their trainers commanded; steam rising from where the white-hot overheat touched the remnants of hydro pump. The Overheat Rain looking ethereal as it singed grass and evaporated the hydro pump. "Now Blaziken use Sunny Day, blind that Swampert!" Said blue and orange mud fish pokemon reared it's head in defiance with the other trainer's command, daring the fire bird to fail in the execution of the move.
"Push through it Swampert, then use Waterfall and drown that bird!" Brendan wasn't giving up, Iris, Cilan, Brock, Misty, Ash, Gary, Paul, Dawn and the others watched as May smirked, Brendan raised a brow.
"Ready, now Blaziken, use THUNDERPUNCH on that Waterfall!" May commanded, causing everyone to start. Blaziken, in it's descent, charged electricity into it's claw, fire flaring around the yellowish electricity as he roared and plunged his fist into the tall column of water.
Brendan glared, "Swampert use Counter!" The two trainers continued battling it out with their pokemon.
Max looked over at Dawn, "She's had it out for Brendan every since she met him, I'm actually surprised she hasn't killed him yet."
Dawn tilted her head, "Why? Do they hate each other? Or are they rivals?" She asked.
Max smirked, "May won the Johto Ribbon Cup thanks to her hard work, however, she hasn't stopped there, now that she's won a Ribbon Cup, she feels it's time to start expanding her talents to battling, she knows that if you can do contests you can learn how to battle. So she went to Professor Birch for an opinion and met him, he told her that her pokemon team wasn't strong enough to actually battle and she spent her most recent year traveling through the Sinnoh Region, they've had many clashes everywhere, I believe she's supposed to be headed to a new region soon." He pushed his glasses higher up on his nose, "Unfortunately, she still incorporates her contest instincts into battle, but thanks to battling all of those Sinnoh Region Frontier Brains and Gym Leaders, she's become much more practical with her moves, she doesn't just battle or show off her pokemon anymore, she does both."
Dawn looked over at the quarreling pair, both pokemon coming to a draw, refusing to fight anymore due to sheer stubbornness, "I thought she already did that, in the Wallace Cup, it took everything I had to just barely beat her."
Max smirked, "You may have thought she was fearless then, but she's even more fearless now, I may be a 3rd place runner in the pokemon league, but I know that even I will never be able to soundly beat her, maybe when I'm older and she's too crazy to even know what she's doing…" Dawn laughed, and they watched as the two continued fighting.
"What did you say?" May yelled, sapphire eyes alight with fury.
"You heard me! I said 'You don't have a chance at that trophy! I'm going to win!'" He repeated ruby eyes boring into her.
"Oh that is it!" She angrily took out five poke balls and the white haired boy did the same, "Glaceon, Zangoose, Mienshao, Vulpix, and Venusaur! We'll show you true strength!"
Brendan glared, "Fine, Aggron, Metagross, Shiftry, Dragonite, and Sceptile, let's fight!"
"You're about to get one you'll never forget!" May yelled, continuing to glare.
Brock looked appraisingly at May's Pokemon, "You've taken such good care of them, and although I haven't met Zangoose, Mienshao, or Vulpix before, I can tell they are very healthy."
May grinned, "Why thank you, at least SOMEONE," She gave a very pointed stare towards Brendan, "Can recognize that my pokemon are very awesome."
Max and Dawn sweat dropped with everyone else as May then smiled, "But Brendan's pokemon are awesome too…" Max sighed, sometimes his sister, although a determined rival and great competitor, was just too nice sometimes.
Dawn was approached by Zoey, "Yo Dawn, how have your travels been lately?"
"They've been good, I've won the Hoenn Grand Festival, it was so intense!" Dawn exclaimed, "Especially since Ursula is stronger than ever!" She looked sideways at the red-violet-haired coordinator, "So did you win in Kanto?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Nah, I was runner up, Solidad beat me pretty soundly." She turned to Paul, "What have you been up to?"
"I traveled through Hoenn, I challenged the Gym Leaders there, I got the top two in the league tournament. And then I came here because Annoying invited me." He narrated, "And here we are. By the way, Troublesome, who's the brunette?" He asked, eyeing the girl arguing animatedly with Brendan.
"You're Pokemon suck!" She yelled, poking him in the chest, causing Harley to glare.
"It appears May Cookie has gotten a better rival than me and Drew-Poo."
"Oh yeah! What happened to "Brendan's pokemon are awesome too."" He asked, crossing his arms.
"That was in the past!" May retorted, causing everyone to sweat drop.
Iris looked over at the brunette, "So Ash, who's you fiery friends?" She asked, looking over at the quarrelling owners, who were now getting ready to battle once again.
"That's May, and Brendan, they're from Petalburg City, Oh look! They're going to battle again! GO MAY!"
Cilan looked between May's Pokemon and May herself, noticing everyone quiet down, he decided to voice his opinion, "May and her pokemon have such amazing compatibility, from what I saw with Blaziken, it's obvious that they are made for one another, as with all of her other pokemon, I can tell that Blaziken was her first pokemon easily."
Brendan looked over, grinning, "Substitution! I have to go look after an egg of mine, So ASH can battle May-ple!"
"STOP CALLING ME THAT BIRCH-DAN!" May hollered at him, sapphire eyes looking livid.
Ash cheered, "Yeah let's go Floatzel!" He called, letting the pokemon come out in front of him as he ran up to the space Brendan was leaving.
"Come on Zangoose, let's show 'em just how far we've come!" The white and pink cat ferret pokemon walked on its hind legs as it entered the battle field, its red eyes boring into the sea weasel's own black ones.
"Alright, Floatzel, let's start off with Aqua Jet!" Ash yelled to his pokemon, causing it to nod and envelope itself in water and jet into the air before diving down towards the Zangoose. Floatzel was right on Zangoose.
"Now Zangoose, Quick Attack, then continue using it with Dig!" The pokemon waited until Floatzel was even closer before using stored up energy to dart around it, its body going through zig zag as though it was a Zigzagoon. It soon dove, it's claws furiously swiping at the ground and it soon disappeared.
"Now Floatzel, use Hydro Pump to flush out that Zangoose!" Ash commanded, and Floatzel grinned, before it hurriedly fired off the powerful stream of water into the hole.
"Zangoose, hurry and get out of there!" May commanded, panic flashing briefly in her eyes, before glazing over in a state of focus she got when she competed. Zangoose appeared in front of her, battered, but tried to shake it off, but it was no use, Zangoose, who hadn't gotten out of the labyrinth quick enough, collapsed, and May smiled and returned him, "Great job."
"May!" May looked over at Max, "I just got us the tickets to Alamos Town, and then to the Orre Region, but the boat leaves soon!"
"Oh yeah!" She turned to Ash, "Sorry for not saying anything earlier Ash, but they just opened up a new region to contests and gyms, and frontier brains, so me, Max, and Brendan are heading over there. We wanted to know if you and your rivals would possibly join us, Dawn, and Solidad already told me they're going."
"YEAH!" Ash exclaimed, "Cilan and Iris will go for sure, and then Paul, Gary, and Lyra can go, I'll just go pack!"
May watched and let everyone of her pokemon go where they pleased, Vulpix ran to play with Quilava, Blastoise joined Feraligatr and the others, Venusaur merely sat with its counterpart and the two Torterras, Meganium, and Sceptile, Blaziken and Dawn's Empoleon began executing moves, finding weaknesses and beginning to work out how to fix them. May's Glaceon played with the other Eveelutions, a Vaporeon, Umbreon, Espeon, Leafeon, and a Flareon. May released Zangoose and Mienshao, but they stayed by her side, eyeing anyone who came up to talk to her, which was Dawn, Solidad, and Iris.
Misty left, saying she and Brock had to get back to their respective Gyms. Barry was heading to Hoenn, and Drew, Harley, and others headed to Sinnoh, while Leaf, Hilda, and Tracy headed over to Kanto with Brock and Misty. None of them told the others why they were going to so many different regions. Soon, only Ash, Gary, May, Max, Dawn, Paul, Zoey, Brendan, Lyra, Iris, and Cilan remained, the party of eleven and their pokemon all packed up and ready to go.
May looked over at Dawn, "So Dawn," She asked as they walked, Meowth on Iris's shoulder, holding a conversation, Blaziken loyally by his trainer's side, while Empoleon walked by the blue girl, Lyra's Medicham used Psychic to float behind them, Paul's Ursaring, and Gary's Archanine flanked the group, Ash's Pikachu sat on his shoulder and Cilan merely pet his Pansage, Solidad walked next to him, Castform bouncing around her head. "Who, exactly, is Ursula, I've heard you say her name before." Max, released his Gallade, and walked beside the bluenette.
"She's a rival that met me before the Daybreak Contest, she thinks she's a better coordinator than me, but I really think her ego needs to get taken down a few notches." Dawn told her, "She dislikes me because Pachirisu turned down one of her Poffins."
May hit her fist against her open palm in enlightenment. "Yes, I remember seeing one of her appeals, it was at the Wallace Cup, she didn't make it to the second round, she used her Eevee."
"She has two. She evolved them in the Grand Festival, a Vaporeon, and a Flareon." Dawn told her, appearing downcast at the thought that she had used such a technique.
"Glaceon could take them on hands down!" May stated, fire encasing her figure, "Want me to?" She asked, causing everyone to sweat drop.
"N-no, that's okay, she'll probably be in the Orre Region." Dawn stated, "Speaking of the trip to Orre, why are we heading to Alamos Town? Is this going to be like the Seven Star Restaurant?"
May smiled, "Yep! To get into the Orre Region Contest and Gym Battles, you have to go to Alamos Town, and they hold a tag-team tournament. In other regions, which is probably where everyone is headed to, they have other tournaments, In Sinnoh, it's a lot like a pokemon league battle, a six on six pokemon tag-team tournament where only simultaneous attacks may occur and if you switch out pokemon, your partner has to as well, in Kanto, they have all of the gym leaders lined up, you have four that you go up against and if you beat them all, you win. And in Hoenn, well, they're holding a huge tournament, but first you have to pass a written test, a physical test, and then, all the people who passed battle one another in a three-on-three tournament, when the top eight emerge, they are paired off against a gym leader to gain entrance. The top fifty in Sinnoh, top twenty in Kanto, and Top eight in Hoenn are granted unrivaled access into the Orre Region, free contest passes, free rooms, maps, and Colosseum entrance, everyone else who enters the Orre Region has to pay a fare, and then fight for any vacant spots in gym battle reservations, contest openings, and any tourist attractions."
May spread her arms enthusiastically, "Basically, if we win in Alamos Town, we get an all-expense paid trip to the Orre Region!"
"But we have Eleven People." Dawn noted, counting everyone.
May giggled, "My partner is meeting me in Alamos town, so that leaves ten people (if you include Brendan)!" (Guess who May's partner is!"
Iris looked over, "I want to pair up with Dawn, you look like the you have the right dynamic to match my style of battling."
Dawn grinned at her, "No need to worry!"
Lyra smirked, "Then it's me and Solidad, might as well have another girl pair." Soledad smiled.
"Of course, you're harsher style will balance out the laid back tendency of my style."
Ash looked over, "I CALL CILAN!" He stated, energetically bouncing.
Gary scoffed, "I'll just pair up with Br-"
May pointed a finger at him, "NO! DO NOT SAY HIS NAME!"
"Oh~ So now you hate my name, do ya?" A voice asked as they reached the shore, the boat whistling.
"Hell yes I do!" May whirling to face Brendan, "And you know what? The person that I'm partnered with will kick your ass!" She yelled, pulling on the sleeve of the purple-headed male's jacket.
"We'll see about that, Coordinator!" Brendan retorted, walking onto the boat, handing the man his ticket, and disappearing into the Cabins.
May pouted, "I'm going to kick his ass when we get to Alamos Town."
Our heroes are now on their way to Alamos Town, where they will enter the competition to gain entry into the Orre Region. What is May going to do to Brendan, how are the pairings go to match up? Will Paul and Max, Ash and Cilan, Iris and Dawn, Lyra and Solidad, Brendan and Gary, be able to conquer the competition.
Who is May's battle partner, and why's Dawn rushing off into Alamos Town?
Why are May and Brendan's rivalry so strong, and why is everything so peaceful?
Join us next time in Chapter 2 The arrival in the hospitable Alamos town! The first step towards the Orre Region, will Max and Paul work together, and will May's partner reveal himself as... !
Tune in next time,
Ciao,
Remnants of a Shattered Memory