Me: It's time for some heated battles. Who will win the ribbon?
May: That would be me.
Me: No. That would be me.
May: I'm going to win.
Me: I am.
Ash: You both are going to annoy the shit out of me until one of you wins, so let's start this chapter.
Me: Hold on, disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Well, I'm back. Did you guys miss me?
Me: Um…no.
Disclaimer: Damn. Anyways, May and Dawn are the best does not, under any circumstances, own Pokémon.
Me: You're so mean.
Disclaimer: I know.
Me: On with the story.
Chapter 10: Heated Battle, Decisions Abound
May sighed as her fists were clenched nervously. The two coordinators were currently waiting in the hall for the finals to begin. May and Heather had both reached the finals after all the hard work they went through. Ash and Brendan were sitting in the bleachers, cheering loudly for the ones they loved. It didn't matter who won this, as long as they both had fun.
"Now, for the final battle that we've all been waiting for." Meridian chanted. "Let's give a warm welcome to the top coordinators that made it gallantly through this contest. Welcome Heather and May." The crowd roared with excitement as Heather and May made their way onstage.
May was wearing a long sapphire gown with sequins. She pulled out her pokéball. "Let's go Blastoise." She called. The water turtle appeared in a flash of bubbles.
"Out you go Icy-coo." The small dog appeared, wagging her icicle tail. "Ice." She said smiling, showing her baby teeth. The audience cheered at the cute little dog.
"Now, battle begin." Meridian chanted.
"Blastoise, let's start this with a Hydro Pump." Blastoise shot some water from the cannons on his back. The water shot towards Iceycu, who gallantly dodged.
"Wow, Iceycu dodges in an elegant manner." Meridian said, hearts in her eyes.
"Icy-coo, use your Blizzard." The small dog shot a flurry of snow and ice from her mouth at the opposing Pokémon. Blastoise, due to its large size, had no time to dodge.
"Cute and strong." Meridian commented as she watched the battle.
"Alright Blastoise, use Hydro Pump." May called. Blastoise started to move his cannon, only to find it completely frozen. "Oh no, Blastoise!" May shrieked. Blastoise was still attempting to break the ice on his cannon.
"Get them while they're immobile." Heather said. Iceycu twirled around and struck them with an Ice Tail. Her frozen tail struck him in his face and he growled in frustration. Meridian was glancing at the scoreboard, where May's points were really low.
"Well, since we can't use your cannon." May whispered. "Now Blastoise use Body Slam." May called. The large turtle slammed onto the small dog, which had no time to dodge.
"That'll cost Heather some points." Meridian said. The scoreboard showed May and Heather's points were even.
"Icy-coo, slide under his belly." Heather called. The dog slid under and came up behind it, striking it with its tail. Blastoise staggered a bit, falling face first to the ground.
"Get up Blastoise." May called. It stood up, a bit shaky and looked at its cannon, which had just been defrosted. "Now use Hydro Pump on that puppy." May called.
"Icy-coo, dodge." Iceycu, jumped out of the way, twirling cutely as snowflakes danced around it.
"We see a beautiful dodge with Iceycu's Frost ability."
"Now Icy-coo, use Tail Whip." The dog ran over to Blastoise and slapped him in his face. The dog continued slapping until Blastoise grabbed it in its hands. Blastoise tossed the dog to the ground, preparing to use another Body Slam.
"Body Slam it while it's down." May called. The dog, however, wasn't going to give up without a fight. It used the last of its strength to launch an Ice Beam, freezing the large turtle.
Meridian looked at the scoreboard. "Time is out on the clock, and the winner is…Heather and her Iceycu." Meridian said. Some cheers went up in the crowd. May smiled at Heather, before running off stage. Heather looked at the still frozen Blastoise that was thawing out. May had left it there, like it was a disease or something.
May sat down by the banks of a river, gazing into it. "Blastoise, you deserve better." May said. "I'm a lame coordinator. I couldn't even help you to thaw out your cannon. Heather would be better off as your trainer." May began crying.
Heather, who had just been presented her ribbon, pocketed it and took the two Pokémon to find May. Blastoise had his head hung low, as if he was upset for the defeat. May didn't even look up when they approached her. Heather looked at her. "May, you did real great out there."
May turned her head. "Real great isn't good enough." May said, downcast. Blastoise hung his head. Heather glanced at the younger girl, a bit angry.
"May your Blastoise did his best and you just act like you don't care about him. What kind of coordinator is that?"
"I'm not going to be a coordinator anymore." May shrieked. "I don't even want to be a trainer." She kicked her feet in the water. Heather looked at her in disgust.
"May, your Blastoise loves you. You're just going to throw away all that hard work you guys achieved?"
May said nothing. She just continued looking in the water.
"I'll tell you something May, just because you lose one battle doesn't mean it's the end of the world. When I began my quest, we lost nearly every battle we entered. By the time we would need supplies, we were completely out of money, because some trainer had beat us. Well this isn't the end of the world May. You don't lose money in contests. You shouldn't lose pride either. You should be happy that you did your absolute best."
"We didn't do our best." May shouted. "We didn't do our best at all. I'm a weak trainer. Blastoise deserves way better."
"Enough May."
"No." May yelled. She and Heather began fighting and rolling. Heather pinned the younger girl down, but May rolled onto her. The two continued this until May ended up in the river. She began coughing and screaming as water trickled down her throat. Heather began running alongside the river. "May I didn't mean to make you fall in." She shouted.
"I'm sorry I was such an idiot." May screamed above the roar of the water. "Blastoise, please help." The Pokémon stood, his head hung low.
"Blastoise has no confidence May. You need to tell it you didn't mean what you said. You're nearing a waterfall."
May gasped and cried. "Blastoise, I didn't mean what I said. You're a great Pokémon. You really are Blastoise." Blastoise snapped his head up as he heard her screaming. He looked over to where she was and saw she was dangling above a waterfall, her hand clutching a small branch that couldn't hold her. Blastoise jumped in the water and dove under, swimming to her side. Just as May slipped, Blastoise appeared under her.
Blastoise dragged May back to the shore and the young girl sighed in relief. "Thanks Blastoise. You did a great job, return." She held up a pokéball and recalled her giant turtle. She sighed, shaking from the bitter cold waters.
"Let's get you to the center May, you'll freeze if you don't." May nodded her head as Heather pulled her onto her shoulders, shifting the weight as she carried her.
"May." Ash called, noting the younger girl on Heather's shoulders. "What happened?"
"Let's just say we had a feud because May didn't want to accept her loss and she ended up in a river."
"At least you're not hurt." Ash said looking at May relieved.
May got to her room, took some clean clothes, walked into the bathroom and changed. She got up and walked towards the bed, Ash sitting on it beside her.
"You shouldn't lose trust in your Pokémon after one loss May."
"I know." She said, clutching the covers in her hands. "I just got caught up in winning, but I lost. I really didn't like losing to Heather, she's like a big sister to me."
Ash hugged her. "It's alright May."
There was a soft knock on the door. Ash got up and opened the door to reveal Heather. She smiled at him and he left her come in.
"Hey May, I feel bad about beating you at something you love." She picked up the ribbon she won and placed it in May's hands. "Here, I'm quitting coordinating for ribbons." Heather said.
May's eyes fell. "But…you won it fair and square…" May said, trying to hand it back to Heather.
"Just take it May." Heather yelled and ran around the corner, bumping into Brendan. "Sorry." She said, picking herself up.
"Oh it's no big deal." Brendan said, getting up. He looked at her and smiled. "Anxious about our date?" Heather blushed.
"Yeah." She said. Brendan smiled at her, his Iceix looking at her Iceycu. They walked out of the center, Brendan holding onto her arm. "Let's go to…Bernard's. They have the best pizza ever." Heather smiled as they walked there.
The two ordered a medium pizza with extra cheese, bacon, and pepperoni. Brendan made small talk with her.
"You did great in that contest." Brendan said smiling. Heather adverted her gaze from him, to a slice of untouched pizza on her plate.
"May deserved to win." Heather said. Brendan saw she looked somewhat depressed so he tried to change the subject. "So, you sure love your Iceycu eh?"
Heather just nodded. She picked up her slice of pizza and began eating it, not wanting to talk anymore. Brendan smiled, respecting her wishes and ate some more pizza. Ash and May watched outside. May was sad that Heather just gave the ribbon to her even though she won fair and square.
When Heather was done eating and going outside to leave, May ran up to her and handed her back the ribbon. "I told you, you won it fair and square."
Heather shoved May's hand away. "I don't want it okay?" She angrily walked away, leaving a stunned May to take it in. May ran after, only to be shoved to the ground. "Stop following me." Heather yelled.
May got back up. "No. It's not mine." She cried running after. Heather knocked her to the ground again. "Will you just knock it off? Take the ribbon, I'm not crushing your dreams." Heather yelled. She picked up her Iceycu, who looked at May sadly. She barked as Heather walked into the street, too upset to notice the car tearing down it.
"Heather look out!" May screamed, but it was too late, the speeding car hit Heather. May ran over, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Heather? Please say something, anything." Heather didn't stir. May wailed and buried her head in Heather's stomach. "Please be alright. Please."
Brendan and Ash came running over. "What happened?" They asked. "She got hit by a car." May screamed, clenching onto Heather. "We'll get help." Brendan said running with Ash to the center. May laid next to Heather as an ambulance came into the streets.
As the ambulance people helped Heather, they couldn't help but notice a small creature poking her snout from out of Heather's coat. The dog got out, tears streaming down its cheeks and sat on May's lap. The people looked at it in concern. They then drove off to the hospital. Ash and Brendan had to tell Rose and Molly the news.
"Molly, Rose, Heather's in the hospital." Ash said. Molly burst into tears and so did Rose. They couldn't believe it. They didn't want to believe it. Ash held an arm around Max, who was shaking. "If May would've followed…that could've been her that ended up hurt." Max said sadly. Molly and Rose were a bit upset and lashed out in anger.
"Well it'd be better if May got hurt then Heather. She hasn't been through as much as Heather's been. Heather had to raise us at the age of 8. She doesn't even make much money as is. Pretty soon, we'll lose our house, our hope, our everything. That's why Heather entered contests. To prove she can provide more money for us without selling the house."
Max burst into tears. "Just because your sister's been through a lot, doesn't mean mine hasn't. May was always the one my father hated. He had a bad temper and he would abuse May when something went wrong. May took the beatings, not even daring to strike back. She wound up in the hospital at the age of 4 because she almost drowned on a camping trip to the beach."
"That's sad." Molly and Rose said, looking at Max with wide-eyes. "But we don't want to lose Heather either." Molly cried.
"You won't." The voice belonged to a doctor in the waiting room of the hospital. "Your sister will be fine. She's just got some minor cuts and bruises. Her little Pokémon saved her." They all stared in disbelief.
"Which Pokémon, doctor?" Ash asked.
"It was an Iceycu. She's doing fine as well, just a bit cut up. We had to stitch her together a bit. But she'll be good as new in a few days."
"Can we see Heather?" Molly, Rose, and Brendan asked.
"Yeah. That girl with brown hair's in there by her right now though, so you might want to wait."
They nodded and sat down.
--
May was sitting in Heather's room, looking at her with a small smile. The two had patched up and stopped fighting. Heather was given back her ribbon, and for once, accepted that she won. May lay her head on her "sister's" stomach. "Heather, I'm glad you're alright."
"I'm glad that you're alright. If you would've followed me, you might be dead." Heather said, her hand running through May's hair. The younger girl gave a tiny sigh. Heather smiled. "It's alright May. Let's get out of this place." Heather stood up, with some help from May, and the two walked into the waiting room.
--
"Heather." Molly and Rose screamed. They ran over and hugged her. "You're alright." Heather rubbed their backs. "Yes and I plan to be that way." Heather said chuckling.
Brendan came over and gave Heather a peck on the cheek. "Glad to have you back."
"I didn't leave." Heather said smirking. "All that happened was a car ran me over. My Iceycu saved me." Iceycu jumped into Heather's arms. She snuggled and fell asleep.
They all headed back to the center to take actions like Iceycu did. They slept in the same rooms as last time, only Molly had a room all to herself now. Molly, Max, Rose, and Ash were all looking forward to their battles with the gym leader the following morning.
Me: Well there is the next chapter.
May: Cute. Even though I lost.
Ash: Putting yourself in danger added effects.
Molly: More, more.
Rose: Encore, encore.
Me: (laughing) You guys should be twins.
Rose and Molly at the same time: Can we, can we?
Me: Um…sure. That means your hair is now brown instead of pink Rose.
Rose: Cool.
Me: Wait, how about not identical twins, but the twins that are born at the same time.
Rose: Even better. But can I change my hair color to white?
Me: Um…why?
Rose: Cause it's cool.
Me: Um…maybe.
Rose: Sweet.
Me: I didn't say yes or no.
Rose: Aw.
May: Well everybody, review since she had the time to write this and post it at the same time.
Me: Yeah. So I should be getting around…30 reviews. (try to review all chapters people, unless there's absolutely nothing you can say about one)
All: See you next time.