A new Beginning
Once Ash had finished the antidote Nurse Joy had given him, 8 days later in which nothing exciting happened, he and May headed over to the Pokémon center so he could be checked over. The checks came back clear that the poison was gone and he was allowed to travel again. Once Ash, May, Pikachu and Eevee left the Pokémon center they set out for Slateport city to head off to Sinnoh.
On their way through Petalburg wood they saw plenty of wild Pokémon and soon arrived in Rustboro City. While in Rustboro city Ash had been challenged a few times as he was the champion so he and May headed to the Pokémon center so he could have all his Pokémon healed.
Upon arrival in the Pokémon center Nurse Joy immediately recognized Ash and rushed over to him and asked, "So what can I do for the winner of the Ever Grande conference?"
"Um Nurse Joy could you restore my Pokémon back to full health please?" Ash asked politely
"Yes of course" Nurse Joy said taking Ash and May's Poké balls while Pikachu and Eevee ran off following Nurse Joy.
Ash and May walked off into the canteen of the Pokémon center. They got their lunch and sat down. "So Ash when do you think how long it will take to get to Slateport?" May asked.
"Even though you are the Hoenn region is your homeland" Ash joked but answered, "Well I reckon we can stop in Vertanturf town tonight and then Mauville by the next day stop there and then reach Slateport in two days' time."
"Oh ok I guess at you're planning ahead" May said while biting into her food. Ash smiled at May and then took a bite into his food. May had soon finished and Nurse Joy called through on the Tannoy , "Could Ash Ketchum and May Maple come and collect their Pokémon from the front desk please?"
Ash was about to get up when May pushed him back down and said, "I'll go as I've finished, you finish your lunch I'll bring Pikachu, Eevee and the others back"
"Thanks May" Ash agreed.
May soon returned with their Pokémon, once Pikachu saw Ash he jumped off May's shoulder, ran up to where Ash was sat and curled up beside him. May watched Pikachu's actions and then returned to her seat. Eevee hopped down and curled up beside she trainer. Once Ash had finished the two teens along with the two Pokémon set off towards the Rusturf tunnel so they could get to Vertanturf town.
On the way to the Rusturf tunnel the two teens and Pokémon fell into a pit fall trap.
"Oh not again?!" Ash and May moaned in unison.
"Who put this pitfall trap here?" May asked no-one in particular.
"I think I can guess who" Ash replied.
"Prepare for trouble, and make it double, to protect the world from devastation, to unite all peoples with in our nation, to denounce the evils of truth and love, to extend our reach to the stars above, Jessie, James, Team rocket blast off at the speed of light, surrender now or prepare to fight, Meowth that's right, Wobbuffet, Mime, Mime, Mime." Team rocket stated as they went through their motto.
"You guess still keep that thing even though it's as old as you?" Ash asked.
"Hey don't insult the motto" Jessie screamed
"Don't forget twerp we have the upper had as we are on higher ground" Meowth stated.
"Wait hang on a second I'm sure we build another one somewhere around here" James thought out loud looking around. Once James had said this the other two stopped taunting the two teens and looked at James. The next thing Ash and May knew was team rocket were gone. Screaming as they fell into their other Pitfall trap.
"Sceptile come on out" Ash cried throwing a Poké ball into the air.
"Ash what are you doing?" May questioned.
"Watch" Ash replied as Sceptile appeared, "Sceptile I need to throw me out of the hole"
Sceptile nodded and grabbed his trainer and gently tossed him out.
With Ash out of the hole he called down, "Now to the same with May then jump out with Pikachu and Eevee" Sceptile opened his arms for May to move closer to him.
"Ash are you sure it's safe?"
"Yes of course I'm alright don't worry I'll catch you"
"Ok" May replied and slowly moved towards Sceptile. Sceptile gently grabbed May and tossed her out of the pit. As she flew through the air she screamed until she came back down and landed in Ash's strong, protecting arms. "Oh Ash my hero" May playfully cooed.
"Funny"
"No I mean it Ash" May insisted, and to prove her point she kissed Ash on the check and then jumped out of his arms. While the two teens were playing hero and damsel Sceptile had grabbed the two smaller Pokémon and jumped out of the hole himself. "Thanks Sceptile" Ash thanked as he returned Sceptile to his poke ball. Pikachu jumped up onto Ash's shoulder while Eevee climbed on May's and snuggled up close to her as she was a little frightened.
"Aww it's ok Eevee you're safe" May reassured the little Pokémon. As they moved past the hole team rocket fell into Ash stated, "So much for the upper hand and higher ground guys, bye"
The pair walked off through Rusturf tunnel. "Ash it sure is dark in here" May shuddered.
"here hold my hand" Ash comforted reaching his hand over to her.
"Thanks Ash" May replied as she took hold of his hand, his skin was soft and warm and while May held Ash's hand she felt a whole lot safer knowing Ash was there and the he would protect her.
All of a sudden the two heard strange noises. May immediately squeezed Ash's hand while Eevee pushed her head into May's shoulder.
"it's ok you two I'm sure its just a wild Pokémon" Ash reassured them
"But what a ghost" May cried.
"May you can't find ghost types in Rusturf tunnel" Ash pointed out.
"Oh yeah"
Ash was on the lookout for what could be making the noise as they slowly continued on their way through the tunnel. As they got towards the end of the tunnel Ash could just see what was causing the sound, "it's a whismur" he quietly called to May.
Once May could see it she squealed "Aww I want it, it's so cute."
"Well try and catch it" Ash said.
"Ok Eevee let's go" May called and Eevee jumped down from May's shoulder straight into her battle stance.
"Eevee use Shadow ball" May called in excitement.
"But May" Ash was about to say but it was too late. Eevee opened her mouth and creates a black and purple ball in front of her mouth. Eevee then fired it at the Whismur. Unfortunatly May forgot it was a ghost type move and that Whismur was a normal type in her excitement as the shadow ball struck whismur but did no damage what so ever. "Oh why didn't it do anything?" May pondered out loud.
"May Shadow ball is a ghost type move and Whismur's a normal type it won't affect it." Ash explained. As Ash finished explaining Whismur launched its attack Whismur yelled out and stomped around, making blue sound waves come out of its mouth at Eevee. Pikachu Ash and May held their ears, quickly May reacted, "Eevee dig to avoid it" Eevee dug underground using her front paws. Seconds later, she came up by underneath Whismur. Whismur shocked by this stopped its attack. "Eevee quickly tackle." May ordered. Eevee charged towards Whismur, hitting Whismur in the stomach and Whismur toppled over.
"Now May throw the poke ball" Ash cried.
"Alright, go Poké ball" May cried as she threw the Poké ball at Whismur. The ball hit Whismur and opened up sending a red light around Whismur's body and engulfed it into the ball. It then hit the ground and began to slowly shake bleeping as it went.
"1…2…3" May counted. The ball stopped shaking and stopped bleeping as it locked shut. "Alright I've caught myself a Whismur" May yelled as she picked up the ball and showed Ash in her victory pose.
"Eevee Eevee" Eevee added once she had jumped up onto May's shoulder.
"Alright well done May, well done Eevee that was some great battling from you two" Ash congratulated. The poke ball then disappeared from May's hand, "Whoa where'd it go Ash?" May asked.
"it's alright May it should be at Professor Oak's we'll call him when we get there." Ash reassured, "it's only because a trainer can only carry six Pokémon at a time."
The two soon left the tunnel but it was beginning to get dark as the exited the tunnel into Verdanturf town, they walked straight to the Pokémon center and up to the front desk.
"Hello, how may I help you two?" Nurse Joy asked.
"Can we request a room please?" Ash asked.
"Why yes of course if you would like to follow me" Nurse Joy replied grabbing a set of keys.
The pair and Pokémon followed Nurse Joy and she let them into their renting room. They reached the room after a few minutes walking. "Here we are" Nurse Joy stated as she opened the door to the room and handed Ash the keys.
"Thanks Nurse Joy" Ash thanked. Nurse Joy left to go back desk and treat any injured Pokémon that came in. The pair placed their belongings in the room and chose the beds they would sleep in that night. Naturally they chose opposite bunks so they would be able to look at each other's sleeping forms during the night. They then left the room with Ash locking it and headed back to the lobby so May could ring Professor Oak to see if her Whismur was alright.
Ash dialed in the number for May when they got to the phones. May sat down while Ash stood behind her. Professor Oak soon appeared on the phone. "Hello May, what can I do for you?" Professor Oak greeted.
"Professor I wanted to ask if my Whismur is there." May asked.
"Why yes it has arrived and it is doing very well I am pleased to tell you" Professor Oak replied.
"Thank you Professor" May thanked, "just to let you know we are in Verdanturf town"
"Thank you for letting me know May" Professor Oak thanked, "Oh better go it's time for me to go and feed all of the Pokémon" Professor Oak said goodbye to Ash and May and then disconnected the call.
"There better now you know where Whismur is and that it's ok?" Ash asked.
"Yeah much better thank you Ash" May replied.
"Come on we better go have some food before we starve" Ash thought. So the two of them went to the canteen to have dinner. Ash had a two hotdogs while May had Hamburger. They both had chips and the pair also shared their food with Pikachu and Eevee.
"Ash what shall we do now?" May pondered after they had finished.
"Hmm good question" Ash began pondering himself. Just then Eevee yawned. Ash saw this and chuckled, "Well I know what Eevee's going to do, Eevee's going to go to sleep"
"Aww ok to bed with you then" May said picking Eevee up and heading towards their room, with Ash and Pikachu close behind.
Reaching the room they had been allocated May place the now sleeping Eevee on the bed and sat down on the edge of the bunk. Ash was stood in between the two bunk beds. May patted the bed beside her to bid him to sit down which he did, Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and curled up next to Eevee to keep her warm as he had begun to feel a chill in the air himself.
"It's a bit cold isn't it?" May shivered.
"Yeah it is a bit nippy at the moment" Ash replied rubbing his arms trying to keep warm, "Come here" He cooed pulling May into a hug to keep her warm. The two stayed embraced and May placed her head on Ash's chest hearing his heartbeat she found herself blushing. Ash allowed May to rest her head in his chest and made sure he had hold of her to keep her warm not really caring if he was cold. They stayed like that until May yawned. Ash looked down and asked, "Tired?"
"Would you know I am actually, how did you guess?" May replied playfully" Ash smiled and let go allowing her to grab her bag and go and get changed in the Pokémon center bathroom while Ash got changed in the room.
By the time May returned Ash had changed and got into bed. May walked over and kissed Ash before saying, "Night Ash, love you"
Ash replied, "Night May love you too" May slipped into bed carefully not to wake the sleeping Pokémon before the two of them drifted off to sleep.
May awoke during the night by the sound of something hitting the window. She gently flicked to covers off herself and sat up and looked out the window and saw it was raining. She stared at the rain and a bad memory came flooding back to her. In the memory she saw Harley, It was raining just as it was at present and she had just beaten Harley in the Johto Grand festival final, how Harley got there May didn't know. It was after the after party and it was dark. Harley was being his usual self but he had gone worse this time He began pushing May saying, "You didn't deserve that trophy, I should have won you put on a lousy performance the whole way through, your Pokémon are nowhere near as beautiful as mine and someday everyone will realize it." Just as he finished he pushed May once more but harder than before forcing her shoulders back while placing an foot behind hers and pushing her into the mud before kicking a load more mud over her face before walking off towards his hotel. Then the memory faded and May sat on her bed crying.
Ash awoke to the sounds of sobbing and looked over to where May was still crying sat on her bed. He smiled understandingly and got up and sat beside her putting an arm round her pulling her into him. "May babe, what's wrong?"
May shuddered slightly at his touch and voice before looking up at him her usual bright sapphire eyes where clouded and greyer from all her tears. She whimpered, "Ash I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you"
Pulling her in slightly tighter Ash replied softly, "It doesn't matter your awake and your upset, what's wrong?" May shook her head still crying, "You can tell me maybe I can make it better" Ash insisted.
"Well it's just the rain" May began
"But usually you don't mind the rain" Ash interrupted, which caused May to glare at him to which he rested his head on hers as her was resting on his shoulder and whispered, "Sorry carry on"
"Well it was after the Johto grand festival which I won, I had beaten Harley in the final, who knows how he got there but and it was raining like this, Harley began saying I didn't deserve the trophy while pushing me by my shoulder which hurt before he tripped me up pushing me into the mud before kicking even more mud into my face, and whenever it rains like this it comes back again and again." May explained between sobs.
"Oh come here" Ash said picking May up from where she was and placing her on his lap before wrapping his arms round her, "I know I can't top the memory but I can tell you this, You did deserve that trophy and you always will. Harley may pick on you but that's only because we all know you are much better than him, and that sort of thing will never happen again, not while I'm around" Cuddling into Ash's chest May whispered a barely audible, "Thanks Ash, Harley also said that I wasn't beautiful too "
"Well let me tell you babe you are" Ash stated firmly. May smiled and cuddled even further into his chest.
After a few minutes Ash said, "Come on you we better go to bed as we need to try to get from here to slateport city tomorrow."
"Ash can I sleep with you as I don't think I'll be able to sleep on my own now with the rain and my memory" May asked. Ash was rather shocked to hear this but then May explained, "You sleep under your duvet and then I lay on top of that to one side with another duvet from the one of the other bunks on top of me."
"Oh right ok" Ash replied with a huge sigh of relief. The two off them carried out May's idea and slipped in the two different covers. "Night May" Ash said.
"Night Ash" May replied.
The next morning May awoke due to the sun shining straight into her eyes. She turned over and felt warm breath at which point she managed to open her eyes and saw Ash still asleep with her in his arms.
"Morning Ash" She whispered. She pecked Ash gently on the cheek before getting up off the bed and taking her duvet with her to place it on her bed before going to have a shower.
While May was having a shower, Pikachu and Eevee woke up due to the sound of the shower going, the two of them jumped up and jumped off the bed to sit down in the middle of the floor making sure they had left plenty of room to allow their trainers enough room to move around them.
As May re-entered the room, fully dressed and ready for the day of travelling down towards Slateport city, Ash woke with a large yawn as he sat up stretching his arms out wide nearly hitting the wall. Ash jumped slightly as he nearly hit the wall. May giggled quietly to herself at how Ash woke up before walking over to him and pecking him on the cheek, "Morning sleeping beauty"
"That's supposed to be my line if I wake up before you" Ash stated, "Morning sweetie"
May once again began giggling at his reaction to her greeting.
"Better go have a shower Ash said to himself as he got up and headed to the bathroom grabbing a set of clothes from his bag as he went.
Once they had eaten and packed their belongings ready for travelling, the group of one human couple and one Pokémon couple began heading along route 117, east towards Marvile city. They left the Pokémon center in Verdanturf town at 08:00, by the time they reached Marvile city It was 11:00. They came across a few trainers who asked Ash to battle them to which he did, Ash won all the battles but 3 of the 6 battle Ash did find a little difficult.
"It'll be quicker if we take the cycle road down to Slateport" Ash stated as the left the Pokémon center.
"True and I haven't been on a bike ride for a while" May replied.
"Right lets go see if we can borrow some bikes" Ash began as they walked towards the beginning of the Cycle road.
Upon arrival at the building they asked if they could borrow two bikes to ride down to the Slateport end to which the attendant agreed and gave the two friends a pair of bikes to which they accepted and began their ride to Slateport. Ash was riding a 12 gear mountain bike which had a blue frame while May was also riding a 12 gear mountain bike only hers had a red frame. As Ash looked over to May, he was in Awe as he saw her beautiful brown, smooth hair gently flap in the gently breeze of their momentum. Ash was in so much Awe of her beauty that he forgot to concentrate on where he was going and nearly crashed into the barrier at the bottom of stretch which the two of them were on. He managed to see the barrier and turn left without crashing into it due to Pikachu's shock horror cry which made him look round.
The two of them soon reached the Slateport city end of the cycle road. "What happened back there?" May asked, after they had dropped off the bikes.
"Hmm" Ash motioned as he hadn't been concentrating.
"What happened back on the cycle road with you? You nearly crashed." May repeated.
"Oh.." Ash began going red, "I was so caught up in your beauty I wasn't looking ahead of me" he finished honestly.
May smiled, "Thank you for the complement Ash, but sweetheart next time concentrate on what you doing, even if it's only for Pikachu's sake"
"Alright" Ash replied, before turning to his best friend on his shoulder, "Sorry about that buddy"
"Pika chu" Pikachu accepted Ash's apology understanding Ash's reason and nuzzled up to his best friend and trainer. From the building it was only a short walk south to reach Slateport city.
The two arrived in Slateport city Pokémon center by 13:30. "Really is that the time?" May questioned out loud when she saw the clock in the lobby.
"Yes that is the time, may I ask why you question the clock" Nurse Joy answered.
"We are going to Sinnoh" Ash replied.
"Ah well, the next ferry leaves Slateport to head to Twinleaf town at 4PM so 16:00 on your Pokégear or Pokénav." Nurse Joy explained.
"Thanks Nurse Joy" Ash thanked before turning to May, "Well that gives us a bit of time to have lunch and look around Slateport's famous market."
"Yeah sounds good" May agreed and the four of them headed to the canteen for lunch.
By 15:30 the four of them had had lunch and had been around the market at least once with May taking the longest as she was picking out a lot of items Ash had no clue as to what they were or what they were for. He didn't bother asking as he knew he would get a long winded explanation which he wouldn't understand the half of. It did irritate him slightly but as soon as he saw the smile on her face, the irritation disappeared and the two of them walked to the port together hand in hand. The two saw many people in the city just like them holding hands.
The two got to the port and brought their tickets to the Sinnoh region via the port of twinleaf town. As they were waiting for the boat May asked, "So Ash when did you begin to love me?"
"Well in all honesty while we were traveling together around Hoenn and around Kanto, but it really began to hit me when you weren't there when I was going around Sinnoh and I was without you" Ash explained.
"Well why didn't you say anything?" May questioned kissing him on the cheek.
Returning the gesture Ash explained even further, "Well I guess it's because I didn't know myself completely and I was rather scared as to what you would have said."
"Aww Ash" May cooed hugging him on the bench. Ash smiled to how May reacted to his explanation.
Ash returned the embrace and the two of them broke when the loud speaker called out that it was time to board the ferry to twin-leaf town. The couple walked towards the boat hand in hand, as they reached the boat May gasped in horror as she saw a figure walking towards them.
The figure was tall with Purple hair and the figure was wearing an outfit that resembled Cacturne. As it walked towards them May could see it was wiggling it's hips. "Oh no it can't be, no not him" May whispered in disbelief.
"What's the matter May?" Ash asked.
"It's him" May replied pointing at the figure advancing towards them.
"Who?" Ash asked confused. Then he heard the voice and instantly realized who it was.
"Hi Honey", The figure said.
"Harley" Ash stated.
"Why yes deary it is I, now did you two have fun at the valentines day prom?"
"It was good actually thank you Harley" May stated in an 'actually' tone
"Good well I guess I'll be seeing you in Sinnoh?"
"Indeed you will"
Harley then walked away wiggling his hips as he usually did.
"Well this should be a fun trip." Ash laughed
"Indeed" May agreed and with that the couple boarded the ferry and got to there cabin.