Chapter 2: Meeting Up Again
"Hey! Dawn! Brock!"
Dawn and Brock who had just met at the Lumiose Airport turned towards the source of the voice, and smiled at once.
"Iris!" Dawn exclaimed, hugging her friend. "It's been a long time."
Iris hugged her back while Brock waved at her. "Yes, it has been," replied Iris, smiling at the two.
"So, I guess, you are here for the Champions' League. Am I right?" asked Brock, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Yes, of course!" exclaimed Iris excitedly. "I can't wait to participate."
"Well, almost all of us are going to participate," said Dawn. "I managed to talk with everyone, except Ash, and they said they might."
"Oh yeah, by the way, Iris," said Brock, getting her attention. "Congratulations on beating Drayden. I heard you had a hard time against him."
"Oh, thanks a lot," said Iris, smiling at him. "I have still got a long way to go before I become a Dragon Master. I still need to defeat Lance who I heard is one of if not the strongest dragon-type trainer. That's exactly why I am participating. What about you guys?"
"Well, Ash always spoke about how he wanted to be a Pokémon Master and I have seen him win through all the obstacles, so I want to see how I fare against the toughest obstacle of his goal," said Dawn with a smile on her face. "You see, contests also have battles, and I sometimes lose because my Pokémon don't have that much endurance. So, this tournament will also be a kind of training for them."
"That's good to hear," said Iris. "Let's go to the Pokémon Centre first. We can check out the tournament venue later. I want to check out all the shops here first."
"Let's go. What are we waiting for?" Dawn said laughing, and ran after Iris. Brock sighed and followed them in a more composed manner.
The three soon reached their destination and booked their rooms. After freshening up, the three met in front of the Centre. The girls were about to leave for their shopping when Brock stopped them.
"How about we meet Clemont first? He's the gym leader here, right?" Brock suggested, pointing towards the Prism Tower that stood straight in all its glory.
The two girls exchanged glances and after a moment, nodded. "Let's go."
The three made their way to the tall tower and went in the gym only to be greeted by a closed metal sliding door with a monitor on the top. The monitor came to life just as they stopped in front of the door and asked them what they wanted. They introduced themselves and expressed their desire to meet the gym leader. At once, they were granted access and the doors slid open to reveal the battlefield with a robot at the other end of it. They were just about to ask it where the gym leader was when they heard the familiar voice of Clemont through the door behind it.
"Who is it, Clembot?" The voice said. "Didn't I tell you not to let anyone disturb me for a while?"
He appeared just as he finished speaking. When he saw the new arrivals, his eyes widened. "Iris? Dawn? Brock?"
"Hey Clemont," said Iris, grinning at the inventor's shocked face. "How've you been?"
Clemont shook his heads and smiled at them. "It's been long since I saw you guys in flesh. Do come in. Don't just stand there." He motioned towards the door he had come through. He turned towards Clembot. "And Clembot, close the gym for a while and join us."
The three followed Clemont in his room and stared at the sight. There were three computers on a desk on the opposite end of the room. Many wires were running here and there covering the floor. In the middle of the mess, there was a strange machine. There was a box like frame with the lower half filled with buttons and sockets and all kind of electrical equipment one could think of.
"Sorry about this," said Clemont, scratching the back of his head. "I have been working here for a while so…"
"Oh, that's fine," said Dawn, sweat-dropping. She looked around the room again. "You don't seem to have changed much, except maybe a bit taller."
"But you guys surely have changed quite a lot, except Brock," said Clemont, turning towards them. "Brock just looks the same to me."
Brock scratched his cheek. "Am I really all that same? Dawn said the same thing."
Dawn laughed while Iris shook her head in amusement.
"I guess you are all here for the Champions' League then, right?" asked Clemont, getting nods in response. "What about others? Are they going to come too?"
"Well, I talked with Misty and May and they agreed," said Dawn thoughtfully. "I don't know if they are going to participate but they did say they would come."
"Gary agreed as well," said Brock. "He said he would use this opportunity to research all the different pokémon that are bound to be there. I don't know about Cilan though."
"He'll be there when the tournament starts," said Iris. "I don't know when he'll come though. He sounded rather busy when I last called him."
Suddenly, the computer started beeping loudly. Clemont turned towards the monitor and after a brief glance, pressed a button. "Permit it," he said. Turning back to the group, he walked ahead. "Let's go."
The three exchanged glances, and then followed him.
"Where are we going?" asked Brock.
"To the helipad," replied Clemont.
They soon reached an elevator and entered it as Clemont pressed the topmost button on the panel. The elevator sped up the tower, and in a few seconds, opened up at the top. They walked out just as a helicopter landed, its rotors making a deafening noise.
The four watched as the door of the helicopter slid open, revealing the passengers.
"Hey guys, it's been a long time!"
"Ash! Serena!"
"Pika pika!"
"And Pikachu too!"
Ash and Dawn high-fived, and then Ash bumped fists with both Brock and Clemont with Pikachu joining in as well. Serena, in the meantime, hugged both Iris and Dawn and greeted them. A few minutes passed as they all greeted each other.
"Come on now. Let's go down," said Clemont. Just as they were about to go to the elevator, a familiar voice was heard, coming from afar.
"Hey! Clemont! Ash, Serena!"
"Look! Even Brock, Dawn and Iris are there! Hey there, guys!"
All of them turned towards the source of voices in shock. They could see two familiar faces, waving their hand at them.
"Isn't that…?" started Dawn, her eyes widening.
"Bonnie?!" Clemont exclaimed in shock. "And Max too?!"
"Are they… flying?" Iris asked slowly, as the two trainers flew over to them. They landed on the top of the tower and ran towards their friends. Bonnie tackled her brother so hard that the two fell over and Clemont hit his head on the floor.
"Hey there, everyone," said Max, greeting them with a grin. "I am glad we caught you on time."
"Hey big brother," said Bonnie with a huge smile on her face as she got up and helped Clemont up. "Already leaving before meeting your little sister?"
"Of course not," replied Clemont, dusting himself off. "I had no idea you would come over flying."
"Hmmm…I had no idea you could use aura to fly," muttered Ash, looking at Max.
Max gave him an odd look. "We weren't using aura."
"Well then, how were you flying?"
"With our psychic powers," replied Bonnie, turning towards Ash.
"Huh? But wait, weren't you training for aura?" asked Ash, not being able to understand what was going on.
Max sighed. "Don't worry about it. We'll tell you once we are rested enough. We flew all the way from Laverre City, you know."
"Alright, I guess," said Ash, deciding that it was a sound advice. Everyone quickly piled into the elevator and soon enough, reached Clemont's home.
"I had no idea you two had grown so much," said Serena, looking first at Bonnie, and then at Max. "You two almost look like you're in your mid-teens."
The two exchanged glances and then smiled. "Do we?"
"I can't believe how much you've grown," said Clemont. "It seems hard to believe that you used to be just over half my height. You are as tall as me now."
"What about others though?" asked Ash. "When are they going to arrive?"
"Gary and Misty should be here soon," replied Brock. "I don't know about Tracey though."
"Well, Delia and Professor Oak will come when the tournament starts," said Serena.
Before the conversation could continue, they were interrupted by a loud ring. Max pulled out his Holo Caster, and pressed the answer button. The Holo Caster projected his mother's hologram.
"Hey mom!" Max greeted her. He noticed her miserable demeanor at once. "What happened?"
"Oh Max, something terrible has happened," the woman started. "We just got a call from the Lumiose City Hospital."
"What had happened?" Max asked as the others crowded around him to listen to the conversation.
"They said that May was found unconscious in an alley, beaten so badly that she was half-dead," the woman said, crying. "They haven't yet done any tests but from the evidence they found on the scene, they say…"
The woman paused for a while and cried even harder. After managing to compose herself only a bit, she gave her son a teary-eyed look. "They say…she was raped."
"They say what?" Ash burst out in shock, wondering if he had heard right. But Caroline was too heartbroken to say anything else.
Norman, Max and May's father, suddenly appeared on the screen. He glanced briefly at his wife, and then turned towards Max. "Max, we're on our way there. Until then, go to May and try to talk to her. The doctors say that she hasn't told them anything except her name and address. We'll be there today by midnight."
The call was suddenly cut off. Everyone turned to look at each other. Max got up from his seat, followed by the others. "Let's go."
They got out of the Prism Tower and ran all the way to the Lumiose City Hospital. Max went in first, followed by the rest. Going to the reception desk, he asked for May Maple. The receptionist told them that she was in intensive care and no one was allowed to meet her. Nevertheless, she told them where the ICU was.
The group followed her directions and quickly reached the ICU. The doors were to the room were locked and they could see the doctor and nurses working on May. May had a ventilator attached to her mouth and there was a heartbeat monitor checking her heartbeats. It was quite obvious to them all that the doctors were patching her up; they could easily see all the injuries that were inflicted on her.
The girls looked ready to throw up at the sight, while the boys comforted them. Only Max had an unreadable expression on his face. He simply sat down on the seats near the door, his hair shadowing his eyes. Everyone gave him sympathetic glances but no one said a word.
After a while, the door opened and the doctor stepped out. He was surprised to see the crowd in front of the door. None of the crowd had noticed his arrival; apparently, they were really depressed. The doctor hated to give them the news he had brought, but it was necessary. He cleared his throat and attracted their attention.
"Are you acquaintances of…" he checked the paper pad he had in his hands, "May Maple?"
"Yes, we are," replied Max, before anyone else could speak up. "How is she?"
"Well, the news I have isn't particularly a bad news," the doctor started, "but it isn't good news either."
Everyone felt their hopes shattering. "What has happened?" Ash managed to ask.
The doctor was surprised to see such a famous celebrity in his hospital but he decided to comment about it later. "She was barely conscious when she was found," he started. "She just managed to speak out something that sounded like sorry, and then passed out. One of our nurses, who is a fan of Pokémon Contests, recognized her at once and we called her home."
"Ever since then, she hasn't woken up. Her condition is stable right now, so she should wake up soon. I don't know how soon though. We did run a few tests to make sure what we suspected was right or not and we found out that she was raped, and then beaten badly. Three ribs were broken and she had a fracture in both of her legs as well as one arm. The rest of her injuries are simple wounds and none of them are deep. But we have no idea about her mental condition. We won't be able to know about it until she wakes up, so until then, she should stay in the intensive care. We'll keep on monitoring her condition 24-by-7, so don't worry about it."
"How can we not worry about it?!" Ash burst out angrily at the doctor's last statement. The doctor was taken aback by the sudden outburst. "Do you even realize how close a friend she is to us? She's been with us…"
"I see. Thank you, doctor."
Everyone turned their shocked glances at Max, who had spoken. He had gone back to sitting at his seat, and had calmly said it.
"But Max…" Ash started.
"Stop it, Ash," Max interrupted calmly. "Yelling at the doctor isn't going to help the situation. He's trying to help us after all."
Taking his cue, the doctor left, while everyone else looked shocked at Max. "How can you say that so calmly? Don't you love your sister?"
At the last question, Max turned and gave Ash such a death glare that Ash shut up at once. "I love her; no doubt about it. But there's no need to waste my energy yelling at the doctor or trying to hasten him. It'll only serve as a mistake. I'd rather wait until she wakes up so that we can talk about it and help her get over it; she's bound to be traumatized."
They could clearly hear the emotion in his voice as he said the last sentence and realized that this was affecting him as much as it affected them. Ash looked down towards the ground, feeling ashamed of his outburst. "I'm sorry, Max, for yelling like that," he said in a low voice.
"Apologize to the doctor," Max stated, looking towards the door that separated him and his sister. "He was the one being yelled at."
There was silence for a while. It was broken only when a voice, familiar to Max and Bonnie, spoke. "How come you two are here?"
The two jerked their heads towards the source. "Ace!"
The atmosphere suddenly turned dark, didn't it? The real story starts from this point. May ended up getting raped and beaten badly. How exactly did it happen? When will May wake up? What's going to happen to her? How are others going to take this news? Find out in the next chapter.