All Roads Lead to the Grand Festival

A prerecorded press room interview is where Drew reveals to the world that he is the father of a baby named Damien. May and the others in Lucy and Brock's hotel room look on. May doesn't understand why she is seeing this. As they watch, Drew is interrupted by Dawn, who vents her frustrations while the cameras watch. The back and forth comes to a head when Drew shakes Dawn in front of the cameras. Dawn will have none of it and punches Drew, tackling him as well. May and her audience watches the scene in shock and awe. After the confrontation, it is reported that both Drew and Dawn have been arrested.

NOTE: After this chapter, the story will go on hiatus for about six to eight weeks.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon, a creation of one Satoshi Tajiri, and is produced domestically (in the United States) by Pokemon USA/The Pokemon Company, and internationally by Shogakukan and OLM. I personally own nothing and make nothing by writing this. Please do not flame.

(Chapter 25- Elements in Play and At Work)

Like war room strategists past and present, the six people sitting around the circular table in Lucy and Brock's hotel room realize that it does no solider any good to rush into battle without a plan. Looking at May intently and not wavering in their faces, her girlfriend, brother, father and two of her good friends watch her as she describes in great detail what she will do for her appeal in a few hours time.

"Okay," May begins. "I've always felt that the best appeals tell stories through the attacks." Using a toy Skitty model to help her in her demonstration, May places the look alike in the center of the table. "I'm going to use the many elements in Skitty's appeal. Using TMs, she is capable of doing attacks like blizzard, ice beam, sunny day, and a few others."

"I have all of the TMs that I'm gonna need for this appeal, so that base is covered. Skitty will start in the center of the ring. I plan on beginning with…rain dance. That will bring in the water element and seeing as we've gotten a lot of power out of Skitty over the past few weeks; it should be enough to drench the field for a while. From there, we cool things down and then some with Skitty's blizzard attack."

"That will do more than just cool things down," Max comments. "Sounds nice so far, May, but where does this all lead?"

"I'm gonna lead up to a finale where we include thunder into the mix and just have Skitty create this powerful storm which all culminates into this…big flash. From there, the rain will keep going until I have Skitty do sunny day. From there, the rain will clear up and the appeal will end with this giant circular rainbow in the sky. I've been practicing this during bright days with Skitty, and we've got it down to a near simple science. So what do you guys think?"

As the five listened to May throughout her description of her appeal, they are now ready to form their own conclusions as to just how effective an appeal like May's will be.

Lucy, who is sitting to the immediate left of May tells her, "I think that you're about to get a fifty. That's really good and a very effective use of TMs. My only problem is…what you're talking about is a lot to fit into just two minutes."

"I understand, and like I said, I've been working with Skitty for several weeks so that we could get this appeal down pat."

"They have been. Trust me on this one, Lucy," Kelly replies. Sitting to the immediate right of May, she asks everyone else at the table, "Does anyone else have some other words of advice that can help us out for later?"

"Yeah, I do," Brock chimes in. "May, you talk about how this appeal should be large. You said large enough to drench the field, and if that's the case, everyone should see it, but…I still have some concerns. The field is very large. If you want everyone to see this, I think it would be a good idea to have Skitty…do all of these attacks while she's…what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Take your time, dear," Lucy assures her beau.

Brock does so, and after a few minutes of thinking about what would make Skitty's appeal that much better, he comes up with the solution to, "Have Skitty…spinning while she attacks. Do you know what I'm trying to say?"

In an attempt to explain his strategy, Brock spins the toy Skitty on the center of the table while keeping the model on its legs. He says to May, "Keep in mind that you will be judged on more than just the moves you use and how they are used in your appeal. If the crowd loves what you are doing, then they will show it with their cheers. If Skitty is spinning at 360 degrees while attacking, it's a given that everyone will see what she's doing. That can influence the five judges to give you a higher score especially if the crowd is really into it, and if everyone can see this great appeal you have planned, that will make the cheers that much louder. No judge can ignore that."

While her family and friends agree with Brock's logic, May takes a more analytical approach to her older friend's words. "That all sounds good, Brock, but there are a couple of issues that I have with that plan; what do we do to keep Skitty spinning that long and can she hold that pace for two minutes? That can seem like an eternity when you're up there for so long."

"Well, we haven't been working on cardiovascular conditioning for nothing, May," Kelly reminds her trainee. "I think that Skitty can do it, and…I think I know how to make her 'spin' for two minutes." Whispering into the ear of her girlfriend while the rest of the members of the roundtable discussion look on, Kelly explains her brilliant plan to May as far as how to get Skitty to gracefully turn while at the same time delivering powerful attacks. As the coordinator listens to her best friend, she likes her plan more and more.

"Okay, that does make sense," May admits. "Even if we are going to be teasing Skitty by doing it, I like it."

"Anyone else have some more advice for my trainee?"

After Kelly asks the other people at the table for their advice, Norman chimes in with some of his words of wisdom. He says to his daughter, "I like the appeal, but my biggest gripe would probably be that…that's a very action-packed appeal. I wonder if it's…too much at once."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, dad. The judges will give Skitty points for liveliness and activity. And one thing that we've been working on is pacing."

Norman finds it very hard to argue with her daughter's logic. "Okay. It's your call. Good luck, May."

"Anything else?" Kelly asks once more. After a couple of seconds of not hearing anything, she says, "Very well. Meeting adjourned. Thanks for all of your help."

Standing up from her seat, Kelly prompts her girlfriend by telling her, "Come on, May. Your appeal is in about an hour. Let's go meet with your mom and get ready to do this."

"Okay, dear," May replies before getting up. As she and Kelly leave, they thank Lucy and Brock for letting them have their meeting in their hotel room and May tells her father and brother that she'll see them soon.

Outside of the hotel room, the girlfriends are quickly pacing themselves as they are on a somewhat tight schedule. Their mothers Caroline and Julia are already at the Slateport Stadium awaiting both of them, but more specifically awaiting May, who has to get dressed in her appeal-appropriate attire.

While making the walk to the elevators, May asks Kelly about something that has been on her mind since she called her not that long ago. "Say Kelly. I know we've cleared up everything with Zoey, Kenny and them, but I'm curious. Everything that happened earlier with them all stems back to...her, right?"

"I thought that they wouldn't be honest, but given that you mentioned it, yes. That's what was happening in my head at the time. I just don't like cheating and I don't like people who lie about cheating, either. Yeah, she had a ton to do with that."

Expecting Kelly to clear up her reasoning behind sneaking to find out the activities of her four friends, May listens intently to her girlfriend only to hear nothing but their own footsteps as they make their way to the elevator.

"So," begins the coordinator in sweatpants, "this is what it has come to and it all led back to your first girlfriend and what happened there right after you came out to your folks?"

"I guess, but it's not just that. It's…it's really a big thing that was nothing, May."

"Kelly, come on! You know that I know better than that. Damn it, we don't do this! We don't keep secrets from each other! What the hell are you talking about when you say that this is nothing? Are you trying to say that your life is nothing? That your emotions are nothing?"

"It's embarrassing."

"I don't care, Kelly!" she exclaims as the two enter an empty elevator and press the button for the ground floor of the hotel. As the door to the elevator closes and the pair makes their descent from floor ten to floor one, May informs Kelly while looking her dead in her eyes, "Look, I wouldn't want us to enter a commitment if we kept secrets between each other even if they are embarrassing. So what happened?"

Bringing her head down for a second, Kelly has to admit that May is right. No matter how crazy her past was, she did learn a great deal from it. "Well, you know the story that goes with my first girlfriend. Am I right?"

"Of course."

"Well, what you don't know is that my first girlfriend…accused me of cheating several times along with her. This was about a year before you and I came together and I was about thirteen years old at the time. It shocked me to no end because I would never do anything like that, but it did more than just throw me off. She caused a rift between me and my parents! They actually believed that bitch over me, their own daughter!"

"Why did you stay with her if she kept making these false accusations? That's the part that I don't get. Why not kick her out then and there?"

"Well, first off, that's my parent's call, not mine. Because I loved her…or at least I thought I did. I come to find out that the only reason she said all of that was because she was cheating on me the entire time. She only said that so no one would suspect her wrongdoings. I hated her for the longest time. That's why I'm so against cheating, May. Not only because it happened to me, but because I was wrongfully accused by someone who I cared for deeply. She lied right to my face. She nearly cost me the good relationship I have with my mom and dad, and to this very day, she carries on with her boyfriend like she's done absolutely nothing wrong. That's why I didn't want to ask Zoey or Holly point blank; because I didn't want to be lied to again. It happened to me personally and I'll be damned if it's gonna happen to me or anyone else I care for again."

As the tandem hears the elevator ring, they find that they have come to a stop two floors before reaching the ground floor. May makes the comment after digesting all of Kelly's information, "That makes a lot of sense. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but…I'm pretty certain that she is at this Grand Festival. Is that a problem?"

While two gentlemen enter the elevator car, Kelly considers the idea of her ex-girlfriend being at the Grand Festival and though she would prefer not to see her, she is more indifferent than anything else to the idea. She gives May a response of 'Whatever' to play off her ex's significance. No more words are exchanged between the two as the elevator reaches ground level.

Once his sister and her girlfriend leave, Max says, "I just remembered. I have to meet up with Harley before the appeal. I'll see you all in a bit," and no sooner than May and Kelly leave, Max exits the hotel room en route to the room he shares with his boyfriend. He leaves his father to talk with Brock about Forrest's progress as a gym leader in Pewter City.

Unlike May, Max doesn't have far to go to reach his room. He only has to walk down two flights of stairs to floor number eight. From there, May's little brother still has quite a ways to go to reach his hotel room. He walks the entire distance of the hallway and then makes a right turn to even more rooms before he gets to his; the final hotel on the right.

Reaching into his pockets, Max pulls out his key card, but before he can unlock the door to his room, a hand unexpectedly touches his shoulder. Turning around and expecting the worst, Max is instead given what amounts to a look in the mirror.

"Oh! Hey, Conway. What's up?"

"Not too much. I'm about to join my party and root your sister on in her appeal."

"Thanks," Max replies, "and thanks for all of your support for me and my family over the years. My family and I really appreciate it."

"Oh, no problem, man," Conway assures. "Like I said to you when my brother first introduced us, any friend of Seth's is a friend of mine."

"Yeah, about that."

"What do you mean, 'about that'?"

"Well, if he's such a good friend, why was he so hard on me a year ago? I competed against him in the Kanto League Championships quarterfinals and lost to him. I tried to ask him what he though about losing to me, and he just left saying that he should have worked harder and that I battled well. You remember this, Conway? Now normally, we get along very well, but that day, he'd barely speak to me."

"Well, Max, it's the league championships. They only happen once a year in each of the regions. You know the accolades and the recognition and the…money that goes to whoever wins a league title?"

Thinking about it for a second, Conway's words make more sense. Having not seen both of the Ericsson brothers in about a year's time didn't allow the younger siblings to talk about their classic six-on-six battle from that championship. With Conway here with him now in Hoenn to support May and Seth back in Sinnoh to compete in that league, perhaps some confusion about that moment in time can be cleared up for them both. "Yeah. I guess you make a good point."

"Look, I admit that my younger brother can be very intense at times, but it's only because he wants to be the best, just like us, and he just has a different way of going about it. He kinda reminds me of Paul before he came out."

"Isn't it funny how that happened?" Max questions. "The entire time we thought he was just a mean guy. I guess you can't really judge a book by its look."

"Hell, I knew him when he wasn't an asshole. Something…changed him. I don't know if it was the death of his mom when he was five or what, but…he wasn't always like that. He was a really sweet boy." A few seconds of dead time passes, and Conway gets a good look at Max. "Shoot. I just noticed it," the older male in glasses comments while chuckling. "We're wearing the exact same shirt!"

Getting a look at Conway and then taking a look at his own shirt, Max realizes it himself. "Well, what do you know? You're right!"

"Why'd you change shirts?" he asks the Hoenn trainer out of curiosity.

This question catches Max off guard. For one, he did not expect to hear it and second of all, the real reason is very crazy in its nature. "Well, you see…um…Harley had…I guess…spilled something on the first shirt and..." It is at this point where Max begins to go on the defensive asking his older counterpart, "Why the hell do you want to know so badly, huh? If you're so damn curious, I was giving my boyfriend head and he came on my old shirt. There! I said it! Are you happy Connie?" Max bluntness causes Conway to open his mouth wider than Max did earlier in the day.

While Conway is in his trance, Max unlocks the door to his hotel room and informs the eighteen year old, "Quit being so goddamn noisy, all right?" and he shuts the door behind him.

Noticing something amiss with what Max just told him, Conway frees himself from his trance and knocks on Harley and Max's room. He asks the younger teen, "Hey Max. Max, didn't you mean to say 'Quit being so goddamn nosy?'"

Hearing this question from the other side of the door, Max opens the door, saying nothing to Conway in the process. All he did was hold the middle finger of his right hand directly in front of the bespectacled one's face before shutting the door once more.

"What the fuck is going on here?" the swinging teen questions before he makes the long walk to the elevators and the stadium.

A/N: And that concludes chapter twenty-five, putting this story on official hiatus! It will return in about six to eight weeks. Look for it then!

Until then, it's been Rave!