So, third chapter. Oh boy, this is gonna be where the adventure part of the story really starts. I hope. I would hate for this to fall flat on its face. Also, I've made a minor change to the dialogue key to make it more accurate. Here is the new dialogue key:
"Example."=Standard talking.
*Example.*=Thoughts/sound effect. (Note that I may sometimes state what a character is/was thinking.)
-(Example)-=Telepathy. (This is going to be Ralts' way of communication.)
(Example)=A shift in perspective, time and/or location.
Let's get this road on the show. Wait a minute…

May walked into the Petalburg Pokémon Center with her two Pokémon and noticed something very odd: the nurse from Oldale Town was here. However, there was something a bit odd: she seemed a bit… buffer, than before…

"W-wait! What? I'm confused! How did you- what is this- huh?!"
The nurse looked at her, rather amused. "Oh, you must have met one of my sisters before."
"W-what do you mean sisters?!"
"There are 16 of us in all! That's how many I remember there being in this region, at least."
"There are 16 of you?!"
"That's what I just said, isn't it?" The nurse was giggling a little.
"Don't be embarrassed about this. You're far from the first trainer that made this mistake."
May then calmed down a bit from her frantic fit, but then another question popped into her mind.
"Erm, do you nurses have, um, names?" The nurse responded, "We certainly do. All 16 of us are named Joy."
"All of you? How do you nurses tell each other apart?"
"Well, for one, we all have our own distinct traits. For example, I have these muscles here…"
She emphasized the point by flexing one of her arms.
"I see… Well, what do you call each other if all of all of you are named Joy?"
"Well, we also all have different first names, which is how we identify ourselves when talking to each other."
"That's pretty neat? Say, what happens to be your name?"
"Well, I'm afraid we're not supposed to tell non-Joys our names. We prefer to keep personal information to ourselves, you see."
"Aww, I wanted to know your name so I could call you by it. Oh well…"
"I'm sorry. Anyways, do your Pokémon need to be healed?"
"Oh, that's right! Okay guys, time to get in your Poké Balls." May recalled Torchic, and was about to recall Ralts before she noticed something odd: Ralts appeared to be staring at Nurse Joy.
"Uh, Ralts? Are you alright?" Ralts suddenly snapped out of whatever fantasy she was in. -(Oh, yeah, I'm ok…)- "If you say so…" With that, May recalled Ralts and handed over the two Poké Balls. Nurse Joy then put them both into the machine.
While her Pokémon were healing, she thought about how far she had travelled. From New Bark Town in Johto to Littleroot Town in Hoenn, she had travelled a long way. And yet, she knew that she had much farther to travel.
May was snapped out of her reverie by Nurse Joy telling her that the Pokémon were finished healing. May thanked her and took her Poké Balls back. She walked outside and then released both Torchic and Ralts from their Poké Balls. She knelt down and began to talk to them.

"Alright, guys, you're both healed up, and now we're gonna take on the Petalburg Gym!"
Torchic responded to this news eagerly, and, surprisingly, Ralts didn't even seem to mind the idea. They ran off towards the Gym. After walking in, they saw a middle-aged man in a red shirt talking to a young boy with a white shirt and greenish hair.

"Now, do you know how to catch a Pokémon?"
"Well, no sir, but…"
May interrupted their conversation with a loud "Hey dad!" She ran up to the man and hugged him.
"Calm down, May! You interrupted me while I was trying to explain something to Wally!"
May released her hug, saying, "Sorry, dad. But you know I really wanted to see you again."
"I know, darling. Say, you know how to catch a Pokémon, right?"
"I sure do, dad!"
"Well then, could you do me a favor and go teach Wally here how to do so?"
May turned around and took a look at the young boy.
"Er, I-I'm Wally. I came here to see if I could get a Pokémon from Norman so I could try to catch a wild one…" May noticed that he talked very quietly, and appeared to be quite timid.
"Don't worry, Wally! Dad can lend you one of his Pokémon, and I can teach you how to catch one!"
"R-really?! You two would do that for me?"
"Sure, Wally! We'll get you a Pokémon in no time!"
Norman then gave Wally a Poké Ball, saying, "Here. You can use this little guy to catch yourself a Pokémon."
"Th-thank you both… Mr. Norman… I…"
"Don't mention it, Wally. Now May, you go escort him to Route 102, and show him how to catch a Pokémon."
May happily complied with his request, and with Wally and her two Pokémon in tow, began walking towards Route 102.

(Route 102)

"Okay, so what you do is you walk around in the tall grass." Wally did as she instructed.
"When a Pokémon jumps out, you use the one Norman gave you to weaken it up a bit. Then, you throw your Poké Ball. It's not guaranteed to work, but if you have more Poké Balls, you can always toss another."
"O-okay, May. I'll look around and see if I can-GYAH!"
The reason for Wally's sudden surprise was that a purple caterpillar-like thing, a Wurmple, had jumped out of the grass. Wally stood up and threw the Poké Ball Norman had given him at the ground. Out came a Zigzagoon, a small, raccoon like Pokémon. May and her two Pokémon watched from the sidelines.
"Okay, Zigzagoon, Tackle it!"
The Zigzagoon did as he ordered, and the Wurmple was knocked to the ground. However, it still was able to get back up. Wally then reached into his bag and threw a Poké Ball at it. It was taken into the ball, and though it struggled, the ball clicked, and it was captured.

"Good work, Wally! You caught that Pokémon!"
"I did it… It's my… My Pokémon! May, thank you! Let's go back to the gym!"

(Petalburg Gym)

After arriving at the gym and returning the Zigzagoon to Norman, Wally released his newly-caught Wurmple from its Poké Ball. Something unusual happened after it came out, however: it sparkled, if only for a moment or two.
Norman seemed a bit entranced by it.
"Whoa. Wally, do you know what this is?"
Wally seemed confused. "N-no sir. I mean, it's a Wurmple, but…"
"This isn't a normal Wurmple you just caught. This is a Shiny Pokémon."
"A-a Shiny Pokémon?"
"Yes. Shiny Pokémon are rare, differently colored variants of standard Pokémon. Wurmple are normally colored pink, but this one is purple."
"How rare are these kinds of Pokémon?"
"If I remember correctly, you have a 1 in 8,192 chance of finding one."
"Woah, these Shiny Pokémon are super rare…"
"Consider yourself lucky to have caught one. I myself have only caught one in all of my travels."
Wally knelt down and picked up his Wurmple. It seemed more confused than anything. Ralts noticed that it didn't even seem angry at having been caught. She passed this off as it being rather unintelligent.

"You're going to be my partner through all of my travels. We're going to play together, battle together, travel together…"
As Wally went on and on, Ralts was deep in thought. The Wurmple didn't seem angry at all. It almost seemed… happy that it had been captured. She initially thought that it was because the Wurmple was unintelligent, but even an unintelligent Pokémon should be angry that it was taken from the wild. Something was off here…
While Wally was talking to Wurmple, May spoke to her father.
"Dad, we came to take the gym challenge. Are you okay with that?"
"May, I'm afraid that you're not strong enough to fight me, yet."
"What do you mean, I'm not strong enough yet?!"
"What I mean is that both you and your Pokémon are too inexperienced to face me. I could easily defeat you."
"But dad…"
"I have an idea. Why don't you go to Rustboro City and fight Roxanne, the gym leader there. She's more on your level of skill."
"Okay, dad…" May looked saddened by this turn of events.
"May, if you're able to get at least four gym badges, I promise, I'll accept your challenge."
May perked up significantly after hearing this. "All right! Okay, guys, we can't challenge dad yet, but if we get at least four gym badges, he'll accept our challenge!"
Torchic responded enthusiastically, whereas Ralts looked a little disappointed. -(I was hoping to be able to see how your father's Pokémon feel to being enslaved.)-
May sighed. "Ralts, will you stop that?"
-(I'm sorry that I understand that they're actually slaves and not partners.)-
May groaned. It was no use arguing with Ralts; her belief that caught Pokémon were slaves was too strong. All May could hope for was that Ralts would soften up eventually.

(A while later)

May, Torchic, and Ralts stood at the entrance to Petalburg Woods. In order to get to Rustboro City, they would have to go through this forest.
They had encountered several trainers along the way, and they had used the usual strategy: send out Ralts initially, swap Ralts for Torchic, defeat the trainer's Pokémon using Torchic. Ralts was almost strong enough that she could actually attack, but she needed just a bit more experience in battle. Torchic, on the other hand, became strong enough that it could breathe small flames, so it had become much more effective in battle.
"So, here it is. Petalburg Woods. I wonder what's in this place…"
-(Let's go inside, I guess. It's not like we have anything better to do.)-
With that short banter, they went into the forest. It was quite dark, not quite dark enough to obscure vision entirely, but dark enough so that it was somewhat difficult to see. Occasional light rays penetrated through the treetops, and this helped the trio's vision. After travelling a short distance, they came across a peculiar scene: an employee of some kind being harassed by a man wearing a striped shirt and a blue bandana bearing a peculiar symbol.

"Hand over those papers and I won't have to hurt you!" "W-what?" "You heard what I said! Hand 'em over!" The employee looked around frantically before noticing May.
"You there! You're a Pokémon trainer, aren't you! You have to help me, please!"
Before May could get a word out, the employee ran behind her and put May between him and the other man.
The other man seemed disgruntled by this.
"Hunh? What do you think you're doing? What, you're going to protect him?"
May, despite how quickly everything had happened, stayed levelheaded.
"What do you think you're doing, harassing this guy? What's so important that he has?"
This seemed to annoy the man further.

"You've forced my hand, missy! No one who crosses Team Aqua gets any mercy, not even a little girl! Poochyena, go!"
With that he threw out a Poké Ball and released a Poochyena.
"If you want a battle, you're gonna get one! Torchic, go!" Torchic leapt out in front of May, ready for a fight.
"Torchic, use Ember!" Torchic then fired out a flurry of small fireballs at the Poochyena. Most of them manage to hit the Poochyena, which significantly damaged it. A few, however, happened to stray from the target and hit a few bushes. While this fortunately did not cause a fire, this did upset a swarm of Dustox, a Pokémon with a purple, egg-shaped body, green wings, and yellow compound eyes.
These Dustox were, understandably, not happy about almost being hit with several fireballs. They flapped their wings strongly, causing several gusts of wind to buffet the intruders. The Poochyena was blown away outright, and Ralts was knocked back into a bush. Even Torchic was pushed back a few feet. After they were done using Gust, they began tackling both the humans and the Pokémon.

(Perspective shift)

Though Ralts had been knocked into a bush, she was still in good condition. She noticed that the employee had run off. She did not know, however, if it was to get help, due to cowardice, or both. She decided she could reflect on that later. For now, the Dustox were launching themselves at May and the strange man. The man ran off into the woods, followed by a small swarm of Dustox. A much larger swarm was enveloping May in a cloud of poisonous dust. Torchic quickly got up and fired several small fireballs at the Dustox, but some broke off of the main swarm and enveloped Torchic as well. Soon, Torchic was fainted, and the Dustox went back into the swarm currently attacking May.
Ralts watched this from a distance, conflicted as to what to do. Should she abandon May and be free from her, or should she help May? Part of her said that May wanted Ralts to be a slave, to obey her every will mindlessly. Yet, a part, a very small part, said that Ralts should help May. May wasn't even remotely cruel. She swapped Ralts out whenever a battle occurred so that Ralts could get stronger without being in danger. As Ralts was pondering over this, May was standing her ground against the Dustox, head down, attempting to cover her face in order to prevent the dust from being breathed in. However, the Dustox were showering her in poison powder, which nearly guaranteed that she was breathing a large deal in. Suddenly, Ralts heard May yell something.

"R-*cough*-R-Ralts! Get Tor-*cough*-Torchic out of *cough* here! Just… just *cough* forget about me! *cough*"
Ralts' thoughts were racing upon hearing this. She didn't know whether to abandon them both, get Torchic to safety and leave May to deal with the Dustox alone, or to try to drive away the Dustox. This could be her last chance for real freedom, for a life without taking orders. Yet, Torchic was innocent and had no bearing on May's orders, so she could at least save Torchic… And again, that small part kept saying to help May, to fight the Dustox. May had cared so much for Ralts, even to the point of urging Ralts to get to safety… To ignore May, who was in a life-threatening situation… Yet one thought was provoked whenever Ralts thought of saving May: how would she do that? She didn't know any attacks, unless growling counted…
Suddenly, a streak of pain went through Ralts' brain. It was only momentary, however, and after the pain receded, Ralts' mind suddenly seemed clearer, more powerful than before. This gave her confidence, confidence that she could drive away the Dustox. She concentrated her mind, and suddenly it seemed even clearer than it had been after the pain. She concentrated harder…

(Perspective shift)

May was not doing well. She was swarmed with Dustox, who were all showering poison on her. She knew that the situation was grim. She had noticed a part of the swarm attack and faint Torchic, and Ralts was nowhere to be seen. She could only hope that Ralts had heard her, and was taking Torchic away… She began crying a bit. She had hoped to do so much… to get all of the badges, to face Norman, to get Ralts to warm up… All of those ambitions, going to end here…

Suddenly, she noticed something strange. The poison had stopped falling on her. She looked up…
And saw the Dustox, all suspended in midair, each with a blue aura of some kind surrounding them.
Then, she watched as they were all simultaneously thrown onto the ground. And then they came back up… And then back down. This occurred several times, until finally, they were all thrown into the bushes, where they came from.
May turned around, and saw Ralts, her eyes glowing blue. Her eyes then faded back to their original color, and Ralts fell to the ground. Before she could get to Ralts, she saw the Petalburg Nurse Joy rush onto the scene, followed by the employee. After looking at Ralts and Torchic, Nurse Joy then rushed over to May.

"Are you all right? This Devon employee came running into the Pokémon Center, telling me to come to Petalburg Woods. I ran there, and here you three are."
""I … *hack* …could be doing better…"
"Oh no, you've been poisoned, badly. Did the Dustox swarms get you, too?"
"I'd… *wheeze* … say so…"
"Oh no, we have to get you to the Pokémon Center, STAT. You! The Devon employee! You gather up this girl's Pokémon and get them to the Pokémon Center as soon as you can. I'll be taking her to the Pokémon Center myself."
The employee nodded, and went to pick Torchic and Ralts up. Meanwhile, Nurse Joy picked up May and began running towards the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy tried desperately to soothe May into sleep.
"Please, just rest. We'll get you and your Pokémon to the Center, and then everything will be alright." "O-*hack*-okay…"
Soon, they were at the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy rushed in, and carried May into one of the back rooms. She set May down on a hospital bed, and began to get various things out of the drawers and cupboards. She put a damp cloth on May's head, and gave her a Pecha Berry to help dull the effects.
"Here," she said, "eat this. It'll make you feel better." May did as she complied, and Nurse Joy was relieved when the effects of the poisoning seemed to wear off a bit. Suddenly a question popped into Nurse Joy's head. She knew it wasn't the best of times, but her curiosity got the better of her.
"You know, I haven't actually learned your name yet. If you can, would you mind telling me what it is?"
May, despite being tired and sick, still managed to hear the request. In response, she said, "Sure… My name's… May…" And with that, she was out cold.

Author's Note: Holy crap, that was a long chapter. This chapter marks the end of Ralts' pessimism (part of it, at least) and the beginning of her optimism about humans and Pokémon co-existing. I apologize if I diverge too much from the storyline for my own personal reasons (the Petalburg Nurse Joy being muscular is a prime example), but I think it adds my own personal style to it. Also, this is my second chapter I've posted today. 'Cuz I love you gaiz. That, and I don't have much else to do. Anyways, feel free to review, tell me what you liked and didn't like, etc.