HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Sirius: To?

SOMEONE!

Sirius: Seriously, even I'm not that hyper today.

Muddy: NO! I'm going to evolve in less than two chapters.

Flare: Dude, I thought you liked being a Swampert now.

Muddy: Well, not in this frickin' story!

Flare: But only in May I?

Muddy: Duh!

Sirius: Cool! I get to evolve!

Skittles: Get a Moonstone fast, Breezy.

Whatever.

Disclaimer: Pokemon don't belong to I ... me ... I ... whatever.

Tears of Hot Magma

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Rewind and freeze!" Brendan threw open the doors of the pokémon center, alarming several other pokémon trainers that were relaxing inside, and sprinted over to May's table. "What was that all about?" The boy trainer caught his breath and sat down next to May who scooted over to the edge of the booth, avoiding his eye contact. "Listen. I'm sorry about what I did even though I'm completely clueless about what happened. Forgive me?"

May frowned and turned her head the other way, ignoring the white-haired trainer. How dare he flirt with other girls and forget about her. Wait, though. Why did she care? It's not like Brendan and she were dating or anything. Ugh, so much drama – well, she supposed she caused most of it. No, now is not the time to act rational. Now was the time to act mad.

"Hello?" Brendan scooted closer to May and waved his hand in front of her face. "Anyone in there?" The boy trainer waved his hand even harder, finally ending it with knocking on May's forehead

"Will you STOP?" May was frustrated with Brendan's antics, grabbing Brendan's hand and slapping it on the table. "If you're trying to humor me, it's not working."

"Latios, May. All I'm trying to do is ask you to forgive me for whatever I did! Do you want me to go on one knee and beg you to forgive and forget?" Brendan pleaded, trying to look into May's eyes.

"It couldn't hurt."

Brendan rolled his eyes. "Save me, rayquaza."

"Just ... leave me alone, Brendan Birch," May muttered, looking out the window. She stared at her reflection, noticing her watery eyes. "I don't walk to talk to you right now. Just ... leave."

"You're being unreasonable, May."

"I don't care. Go away," May choked out as she closed her eyes in a thoughtful manner.

Brendan frowned, sliding out of the booth and leaning against the table, making it shake. "Fine. I'll be training outside."

"Training, huh?" May laughed mockingly. "What kind of 'training' is this? Training your eyes to look for the prettiest girl?"

Brendan sucked in his cheeks, trying to collect his anger. He walked to the doors. "You really want me to leave, huh? Because I can, if you really want. You can take of yourself just fine by now, right?" His hand ran down the cold glass of the door, leaving behind finger smudges.

May was silent, fighting back tears.

"Yeah, your silence answers that. Fine. I guess that we never will keep our promise now, huh? 'You've got my back and I've got yours.' What a joke."

May bit her lip and concentrated on the outside world that was beyond her reach.

"I guess now we don't get to be there when we need each other." Brendan knew he was being melodramatic, but he couldn't help it. "We won't be able to reach our dreams together. We won't be there to cheer each other on ..." he trailed off, turning his head slightly, watching May's movements as his finger grazed the bar of the door. He started talking again. "But I would never stop you from what you want, what you need to make you happy. Remember that." He placed both hands on the bar and took a final look at May. "Never thought things would turn out this way, but I knew it was too good to be true. Goodbye."

"Oh, come on, Brendan." Even May wasn't buying the fake drama speech the boy just spewed. She turned around toward the door, but he was gone, the door swinging back and forth. "Brendan ..." She couldn't help but let out a few tears from her eyes, trailing down her cheeks and dropping off her chin. Never had she felt so sad ... so alone. Was he really gone for good?

She waited for a bit, sitting at the booth, nervous, staring at the doors. Trainers came and went, but none of them were Brendan. Time ticked by, first in seconds, then minutes, and she finally realized that Brendan meant it; that really was their last goodbye. Giving up, she slid out of the booth and wiped at her cheeks where a saltine trail of tears dried. "Well, I guess that was goodbye," she said to herself, heading back outside. The doors swung close behind her as she looked to her left, and then her right, searching for the white-haired trainer. Where could he have gone? He wouldn't really leave her, would he?

"No," she assured herself. "He promised. He promised he'd always have my back, and I'll always have his. He wouldn't do that to me."

There was something self delusional about her statement, and May knew it. Still, she couldn't help but be hopeful as she tread in the direction the two came in, back into the falling ash. Her mind wandered, trailing back to where she first Brendan and their journeys together, and soon, she found herself outside the entrance of the Fiery Path. She didn't even remember walking through it or why she did. No Brendan yet.

As May walked forward back toward their campsite (her mind told her that maybe he would go back there for some reason), she peered inside the building of the cable cars. The guard was gone and was replaced with the receptionist sitting behind her desk and filing her nails. Curious, she entered the building and bought a ticket. Brendan was curious like her, right? Maybe he bought a ticket and was up at the top of ... Mount Chimney, was it? Yeah, she was pretty sure that was what Brendan told her.

She carefully got on the shaky cable car and sat down, her back pressing against the window. The door swung close on its own, and the cable car started to rumble before wheeling up the wire. May looked outside the window, mystified, as the car lifted outside from its gray, stone building and into the open sky. Everything looked so small from up here; May could see the tops of the pine trees, and the path that Brendan and herself traveled on looked so thin and tiny. The landscape in front of her soon became clouded with falling ash, and she assumed that they were closing in on Mount Chimney. The car entered another building, shuddering to a stop.

As May jumped out of the cable car and then out of the building, she noticed something ... odd – not that falling ash and volcanoes weren't odd to her being a Johto native and all. But there were people in red and black uniform up there. Lots of them. They seemed to be loitering around, talking amongst themselves. Still, May hid behind a tree and listened to the pair of uniformed men closest to her. "Why do they look so familiar?" she whispered to herself.

"So this is how we can turn the world into all land?" she heard one of the uniformed men ask the guy next to him.

"Yes," the other one replied. "Maxie says that if we reactivate the volcano of Mt. Chimney, molten lava will explode from it and eventually that will dry to make more land. Or something. I don't know; I really wasn't paying attention during the meeting. We just need a meteorite to power it."

"Ah, so that's where everyone else is. I was wondering about that."

"Maxie," she whispered to herself. She then snapped her fingers. "That's it. Maxie. He's the leader of Team Magma. So these guys must be ... Team ... Magma ... agents?" She pushed herself away from the tree as the two grunts approached her. She stumbled over her shoes but regained balanced, fumbling with a pokéball on her belt, scared.

"Well, lookie what we have here," muttered on the guards, pulling out his own pokéball. "It's a spy!"

"I'm not a spy!" argued May, quivering.

"Like that matters. You're here and you shouldn't be!" said the other guard. "Let's get her!"

May flinched, the bright bursts of light from the pokéballs contrasting against the red sky. When the light died down, she saw the forms of a zubat and a poochyena. In return, she sent out Flare and Skittles and got ready for battle herself, gulping down her nervousness. Latias she wished Brendan were here ...

"I can't believe she just got rid of me like that!" Brendan thundered, punching a rock wall. He then cried out loudly, pulling his arm back and sucking on his knuckles because of the pain. "She is so stubborn sometimes! I-I don't even know what to think about her now! Latios!" He dropped his arms, his knuckles red.

The marshtomp Brendan let out so he could vent looked up at his trainer, amused as he threw a rock up and down, catching it in the flat of his paw. "Then why don't you go back to her then?" Muddy asked. "From what you told me, it sounds like you got all over dramatic and told her you were leaving. She just told you to go away for now."

"I can't! It's not that simple," Brendan argued back like it were obvious. "She doesn't want me back, and I don't want to convince her to take me back! It's worthless trying to convince that stubborn girl."

"Speaking of stubborn," Muddy murmured to himself, dropping the rock to the ground.

Brendan heard a slight beeping coming from inside his pocket. "That's my pokénav. Maybe it's her," he stated, pulling the device out. He answered the phone call; there was no option for it to go to video. "Hello?"

There was static, hurting Brendan's ears, before a muffled voice asked, "Are you alone?"

Brendan hesitated before answering. "Well besides Muddy, my marshtomp–"

"Either yes or no."

"Y-yes?"

"Do you know a pokémon trainer named May?"

"Yes. Why?"

The voice ignored Brendan's question. "Do you care for her?"

More hesitation. "N – yes."

"Then listen carefully," the voice instructed. "May is in danger. She's okay for now, but she won't be if you don't hurry. She's at the top of Mount Chimney battling with a few Team Magma members. You do know what Team Magma is, right?"

Brendan's mind reveled over all the information, taking it all in. "Um, yeah, I think," he replied, his voice hoarse.

"Good. Now leave. Go!"

"But who are you? Hello?" There was a click, indicating that the stranger on the other side of the line disconnected the call. Brendan looked at his pokénav and scrolled through his recent calls, though the stranger left his number blocked. Brendan pocketed the device and started toward Fiery Path. "C'mon, Muddy!" He ran back toward the Fiery Path, leaving his confused marshtomp behind.

"What was that all about?" Muddy questioned, chasing after his trainer.

"May's in trouble! Let's go!"

"Thunderbolt, return!" May returned her second to last pokémon in a beam of red light. Her only pokémon left was Flare, and she was getting wearier by the minute. The girl trainer looked up and saw three pokémon glaring at her, a golbat, a poochyena, and a numel.

"Face it, girl! Give it up! You'll never win against all of us!" a Magma Grunt shouted.

"Just watch me," she muttered in a low voice. She focused her attention toward her combusken. "Flare! Fire Punch the zubat!"

Flare obeyed and used a fiery punch on zubat who screeched, losing his stability in the air. Flare, dropped to her knees, panting with exhaustion.

"Are you okay, Flare?" May asked worriedly.

The combusken merely nodded, turning her head and giving her trainer a weak smile.

"Looks like you could use some help!" someone said from behind May. She felt like she was hearing things; the voice was familiar and so comforting to hear.

"Brendan?" she said hopefully, turning around slowly. Sure enough, the white-haired, ruby-eyed trainer she had traveled with for so long was behind her, his arms crossed and cocky smirk on like always. He ran toward her, gasping for breath.

"That's my name; don't wear it out!" he declared, pulling out his own pokéball and tossing it in the air. "I told you Brendan Birch has got your back!" Brendan gave May a consoling pat on the shoulder, and May felt warm from his touch, knowing things would be okay. "Let's get 'em, Muddy!"

"You won this time, but we will beat you in the final battle!" the last Team Magma grunt cried, running away just like the rest of his team.

Brendan and May recalled their pokémon.

"Thanks, Brendan." May smiled as she looked down at the pokéball clutched in her hand. She could make out her reflection in the shiny reflection; she looked relieved. "Really, I mean it."

The boy clipped his pokéball back to his belt and looked up toward the red sky, a few flakes of ash falling onto his face. "No problem–" Brendan replied only to be interrupted by a hug, surprising him.

"I didn't know what I would have done without you!" May cried, hugging Brendan as a few salty tears dropped from her and fell onto his shirt, creating wet splotches.

Brendan stood there awkwardly and patted her back, his arms straight by his sides, unsure if he should hug back. "Oh, come on, May. Don't cry for me. You knew I'd never leave you ever."

May let go of Brendan and smiled weakly. "You're too modest, Brendan."

"Is that good?"

May hugged Brendan again. "Yes that's good. You're good, too."

Yes, I've been inspired by all the Hoennshippings out there ::grins::.

Yeah, that thing doesn't really happen in the game but I needed something for Brendan to come back.

LaTeR dAyZ!

Last Revision: 6/30/09