Hey everyone! Here's another chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Chapter 4: A Bugged Bug

Most days followed a similar routine after their first and most eventful day of travel. Drew would wake up earlier than May to do some training, then make breakfast just as she would get up. They would eat breakfast then travel for a few hours. Then they would split off for an hour or two to do their own training and meet up again to eat lunch before continuing on their way to Goldenrod. Then they would stop for dinner and let their pokemon out to eat and play before continuing on for another few hours of walking. They would then set up camp and go to sleep before starting all over again the next day. Drew found this to be a good routine and was beginning to feel more relaxed which he thought might be difficult with having May around. She could never cease to amuse him with her constant chatter of her many adventures in Hoenn and Kanto, all her favourite restaurants and bakeries and the ones she was excited to visit here in Johto, and all the places she wanted to explore. She would even occasionally start on her May's expeditions, which left Drew rolling his eyes albeit smiling at the same time. He would sometimes add to the conversation with his own opinions or retorts. Then, every four or five days May would suggest that they have a practice battle and he would agree to. After their first battle which had been interrupted by Chloe, they had only had one battle that he had won. Today once again they were in the midst of a heated battle that had been going on for a while. They stood in a small clearing off the side of the road.

"Beautifly use String Shot!"

"Send it back with Confusion!''

"Fly up to dodge it! Then use silver wind!" May called out and Beautifly just managed to dodge the returning string shot before using a powerful Silver Wind despite its exhaustion.

"Gust and Psybeam!"

"Psychic and send it all back! And use String Shot to hold Butterfree in place!" Beautifly followed the instruction with the speed of a pokemon that had done this many times and knew its trainer well.

"Quick use Protect!" Drew called, but it was a second too late and Beautifly's attacks hit dead on. Drew grit his teeth in frustration. Butterfree was heavily weakened by the number of attacks that had landed a hit and the sheer force of all of them added to its already apparent exhaustion from the long battle.

"Beautifly now use Tackle to finish it off!"

"Butterfree Protect!"

"Psychic and take Butterfree towards the ground hard!" Beautifly did as told and Butterfree was quickly being pushed toward the ground.

"Butterfree, slow it down by using Gust on the ground!"

"Now Beautifly! Silver Wind and Tackle from on top of Butterfree!" Drew was slightly taken aback by this. May always had something to surprise him with. He grew more frustrated because he knew there was no escape from it so all he could manage to say was, "Dodge!" before Beautifly hit Butterfree with an immense force that made Butterfree crash to the ground, unable to get up again. Beautifly hovered in the air, looking exhausted from the number of combinations and force it had used during the battle.

"Alright Beautifly! We won!" May pumped a fist in the air before hugging Beautifly. Drew knelt down next to Butterfree, stroking its head.

"You were great. Now take a nice long rest." He returned Butterfree to his pokeball before standing and looking at May who was watching him, a wide grin spread across her face. He gave a small smile.

"Well I had to let you win something or you would've been in a bad mood for a week," he joked, a teasing smile playing on his lips. May huffed a breath.

"Yeah right! You know I beat you fair and square!"

"Well I admit that last move caught me off guard. So, okay I'll give it to you." May smiled at that, a smug look on her face. Then Drew added, "Anyway, it would be a shame if you didn't win, considering Beautifly's one of your oldest Pokemon and Butterfree my most recent." May pouted.

"You're never gonna get anywhere in life," she declared, stomping off to grab her bag.

"Huh?" Drew asked, slightly confused. May rolled her eyes at him and said, "You always have to sandwich your compliments with insults. How do people stand you?"

"Well not everyone needs to be insulted," Drew replied smartly, grabbing his own bag next to her.

"Oh? Why do I get the special treatment?" she asked, before chugging some water down from her bottle.

"It's just more entertaining." He shrugged, drinking some of his own water. May shook her head and smiled slightly before gesturing to the path for them to continue walking. He nodded, following after her, a smile brushing his lips.

The afternoon sun beat down on them as they continued walking, occasionally stopping under the shade of trees to wipe sweat from their foreheads. They would even sometimes pluck a few berries from tree branches to keep hydrated but not before making sure no pokemon would attack them for it. After about another hour of walking, they saw a large billboard in the distance. May bounced ahead to see what it said. Upon getting a better look she saw behind it there was a large tent crowded with people lining up. The sign overhead read Bug-catching Contest. A stout man in a purple Venomoth costume waved her forward.

"You're here to enter the contest right?" He asked cheerily.

"How does it work?" May asked enthusiastically just as Drew came to stand next to her.

"It's really simple. You use any one of your pokemon to try and catch what you think might be the strongest bug pokemon you can find. Since this is National Park, you're given a Parkball to catch it. The judges will determine which pokemon is the strongest and the winner of the contest gets to keep the pokemon they caught and you get a Sun Stone as a prize too!"

"That sounds like a lot of fun! Want to enter Drew?" She turned to him. He shrugged.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt." He had been planning to catch a specific bug type pokemon from Johto and this would be a good way to do it. An additional prize wouldn't hurt either.

"Can I ask how old you are?" The man said.

"Thirteen!" May said happily.

"Fourteen." Drew said. The man nodded.

"You're good to go then! I just have to make sure because you can only enter if you're sixteen or younger." May smiled and nodded in understanding before she and Drew joined the line for registration.

After registering and receiving Parkballs from the contest officials, May, Drew, and more than a dozen others stood waiting for the competition to begin. An audience had gathered to watch on the big screen. May called out Blaziken and Drew called out Roselia.

"Roselia?" May perked a brow in confusion. "Wouldn't that give you a disadvantage against a bug type considering she's a grass type?"

"It would, but you forget that Roselia is also a poison type which has an advantage over a bug type. And anyway, I don't like to depend too much on type advantages." Drew replied. Then, realizing that she was using Blaziken, he quickly added, "But still, Blaziken is a smart choice. Fire against bug is really effective."

"Yeah that's why I chose him!" May said happily, "And we're gonna win, right Blaziken?" she turned to her starter pokemon and he replied with a nod and a look of fierce determination in his eyes.

"We'll see," Drew replied with the hint of a smirk.

"Now if all our contestants are ready, let the competition begin!" the host declared and everyone began running forward into the vast park area, splitting in different directions. Drew rushed ahead toward the left with Roselia and May jogged to the right with Blaziken. She slowed down a little on the path to begin looking around for a bug pokemon, peeking between the trees and into bushes. She spotted a few caterpie and weedle but knew those wouldn't be good enough to win the competition so she continued on with Blaziken. Occasionally a trainer would run past her with their pokemon, determined to find the best bug type. She thought aloud about which pokemon might be a good catch.

"Hmm I suppose Venomoth could be good, or even a Forretress like Brock's!" she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe an Illumise! Those are so cute!" After a few more minutes of walking an idea struck her. She looked around for the biggest tree she could see. "Okay Blaziken! Use Mega Kick on that tree but not too hard!" Blaziken did as told, and May immediately regretted giving the instruction. A dozen Beedrill flew out from behind, buzzing angrily. May yelped in surprise and quickly backed away. They swarmed forward. "Blaziken use Flamethrower!" Blaziken opened its beak and let out a blast of fire that caused the Beedrill to fly away at top speed. May let out a relieved sigh.

"I guess that wasn't such a good idea."

"Blaziken," her starter pokemon replied, nodding in agreement. They continued on their way.

"Magical leaf Roselia!" May jerked her head to the left upon hearing Drew's voice. She approached the mass of bushes behind which she could hear him calling out Roselia's attacks. Peeking through the trees she saw a small clearing, Drew and Roselia on one side and on the other a pokemon that looked very familiar but whose name she couldn't place. Upon pulling out her pokedex she learned it was a Scyther, a bug and flying type. She could tell it was a heated battle from the way Drew's jaw was set, and from Roselia and Scyther's shaky breaths. "Roselia get ready to blast a Solarbeam," Drew ordered quietly.

"Quilava use Flame Wheel!" May turned quickly to see a boy with a grey T-shirt, black pants, and dirty blonde hair charge into the clearing with his Quilava. The Quilava did as told but Scyther managed to dodge the attack. May's brow furrowed. It was rude to interrupt someone else's battle like that. "Quilava try flamethr-"

"Hey you can't do that!" May jumped out from behind the bush and into the clearing. "He was battling it first," she said indignantly, pointing at Drew. Drew looked at her, surprise crossing his features before he turned to see the boy's reaction. The boy was also caught off guard by her sudden appearance and objection before saying plainly, "It's a competition so I can do whatever I need to do to win. There's nothing in the rules about not being allowed to do that anyway."

While he said this, May exchanged a quick look with Drew. He understood and nodded, smiling.

"Quick Solarbeam Roselia!" Roselia released a large burst of white light that was too big and powerful for Scyther to dodge since it had already been weakened greatly by their battle. The attack hit the Mantis pokemon dead on. At that moment Drew threw his Parkball forward. The boy with the dirty blonde hair opened his mouth to protest but it was too late. The Parkball hit its target, capturing Scyther in a burst of translucent red light. It vibrated for some time before coming to a halt with a single click.

"Hey, you distracted me! That's not fair!" The boy accused, turning on May.

"What's not fair is you interrupting a battle! It may not be in the contest rules but its still just decent human behaviour that you don't seem to have!" May didn't hold back. Drew watched the exchange, bemused.

"Whatever," the boy huffed before stalking off. May turned to Drew who had picked his Parkball from the ground. She opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again. He looked at her and offered a genuine smile.

"Thanks….for that," was all he could manage. She nodded, smiling. Then, to avoid an awkward silence, he added with the hint of a smirk, "That was quite an entrance you made. Were you studying my moves again?" May recalled the time she had been watching him train his new Masquerain from behind a bush.

"Well I do have a flair for the dramatic!" She gave a bashful chuckle, then added defensively, "And I was never studying your moves! I just happened to hear you so I thought I'd see what was going on.." she trailed off.

"I'm sure." Drew smirked.

"Hey it's true!"

"Alright I'll believe you." He smiled. Then after a pause he asked, "Have you caught one yet?"

"No," she shrugged. "At this point I'm just enjoying walking around the park. But I'll probably still catch one for fun. Anyway, I should go do that before the time is up." She left the clearing with Blaziken. Drew stood there for a few moments, still smiling. Then he looked down at Roselia who was giving him a knowing look, the hint of a smirk on her face, even despite her exhaustion. He rolled his eyes, then said, "Why don't you take a good long rest?" before returning her to her pokeball. Then he started walking back to the competition entrance for his Scyther to be judged.

"And our Bug-catching Pokemon Contest winner is Drew Hayden for catching the strongest pokemon, a Scyther! Congratulations!" the host announced. Drew stood on stage, a judge handing him his Parkball along with a small box containing a Sun Stone. The audience cheered and May stood, clapping loudly. She had managed to catch an Illumise in the last five minutes of the competition, knowing it would not end up winning. But she didn't mind, she had had fun battling it with Blaziken. "And that ends today's bug catching contest! We'll see you all next time!"

Drew made his way off the stage as the audience got to their feet, stretching before making their way out. May waited for him, holding his bag out to him as he approached. He took it, smiling, before slipping the Parkball and Sun Stone inside.

"So a Scyther on the team, huh? We should do introductions with all our pokemon!" May suggested, excited at the idea. At that moment her stomach let out a low grumble and Drew looked at her with a perked brow. "On second thought, I think I could do with food first." She grinned sheepishly. He nodded.

"Let's find a place to sit down."

"Alright guys! Meet a new member of the team!" May exclaimed, tossing four pokeballs in the air. Drew had already let out Roselia, Butterfree and Absol. Then he threw his Parkball in the air and Scyther materialized before them. There was a moment of silence as they all looked at Scyther and Scyther stared back at them. Eevee broke it by running circles around Scyther, reminding May of something Skitty would do. They all looked down at Eevee with amusement. All except Scyther who seemed to find this irritating and moved away, turning its head away from them, nose in the air. Eevee stopped, head drooping.

"Eevee just wants to play with you, Scyther," May said kindly as she scooped Eevee in her arms. Scyther turned away even further, nose still high. "Looks like this one's got an attitude, Drew," May said, then with a sly grin she added, "Just like you."

Drew rolled his eyes. "You still have a long way to go if you want to improve your insults."

"Hey that one was pretty good!" May grumbled. Blaziken then walked toward Scyther, holding out a hand. Scyther looked down at it then at Blaziken and anger seemed to flash in its eyes. It raised its scythes, ready to strike. Blaziken dodged at the last moment. "Hey what was that ab-" May began but before she could say anything more, Scyther and Blaziken were in the midst of a speedy and heated battle. "Wait what's going on? Stop!" May ordered but her words fell on deaf ears. Even Blaziken refused to listen, angered by Scyther's behaviour.

"Scyther stop!" Drew also ordered but Scyther completely ignored him and continued fighting Blaziken with everything it had. The other pokemon watched everything go down. Squirtle and Eevee looked fearful. Roselia almost looked amused. Beautifly and Butterfree looked concerned and worried while Absol watched completely stoic.

"Blaziken!"

"Scyther!"

"Return!" May and Drew called in unison. They looked at their pokeballs before looking at each other.

"What was that about?" May asked, bewildered. Drew shook his head looking back at the Parkball, then sighed.

"This is gonna be a tough one. We'll try again later and see if we can figure out what's wrong." May nodded. "For now let's head out, we should be able to get another hour or two in before night." He called his three pokemon back, sliding the pokeballs into his bag before swinging it over his shoulder.

"Alright guys, I'll call you out in a bit," May told them before returning the three to their pokeballs and placing them in her bag. Then together, she and Drew set out on the road.

And that concludes chapter 4! Were you able to guess who would get a new pokemon and what it would be?

I always imagined that one of the Johto region pokemon Drew would get would be a Scyther. It just feels like his kind of pokemon.

Also this Bug-catching contest wasn't an original idea, it's an actual thing that happens in I think the third season which are the johto journeys and I thought it would be a great way for Drew to get a Scyther.

So anyway I hope you liked it! Let me know in the reviews if you did and I'll see you next time!

Also look forward to the next chapter where another pokemon joins the team!