May stretched out as the morning sun started to rise above the trees. May grogerly got out of her tent to see both Absol and Houndour sleeping next to each other near the burned-out fire.
May wondered what sort of dream Houndour had given to Alex, whatever it was, she hoped that Alex had enjoyed it. May carefully left the camp to gather some more firewood so they could make breakfast and something to drink before they continued on with their hike today.
If everything went well, they would be in Roustboro city by nightfall tonight, or at the very least, they would be out of the forest and onto Route 104 North, and they could stay at the flower shop with the three sisters if it was that late in the evening.
After picking up a fair amount of large sticks, May walked back to the camp to see everyone still asleep, unsurprisingly.
As she was building a fire, both Absol and Houndour were woken up and walked over to see what she was doing.
"Good morning, Absol, Houndour," May greeted them, rubbing their heads in greeting.
"Houndour can you use ember of the fire, please," May asked, rubbing behind Houndour's ears.
Hounder closed his eyes in pleasure before turning to the fire and shooting three small fireballs at the wood, quickly setting it on fire and roaring into a warming fire.
"Absol, can you go wake Alex up for breakfast," May asked.
Absol gave a nod before he walked off towards Alex's tent and crawled inside the large tent, only for a shout of a surprise to come from the tent. May was a little surprised that Alex was taken by surprise. She couldn't remember the amount of time that Houndour had woken her up.
Then again, this was undoubtedly the first time that Alex had ever travelled on her own, so maybe she was just really stressed, and they were in a forest after all.
There was no more shouting from the tent other than that one shout which May was thankful for. She would hate to have made Alex mad at Absol due to something she had asked Absol to do.
May started pulling out her cooking stuff as well as some premade food that would need to be reheated before they could eat it. She couldn't wait to get to the city so she could have a real fresh meal, as the meals that came in a bag were all quite bland.
In fact, May was sure that the Pokemon food and treats they were carrying around for their Pokemon would have more taste than the food they ate themselves, but she guessed that was the trade-off for having food that would last 2 weeks.
A moment later, both Absol and Alex came out of the tent with Alex, who was red-faced and was doing her best to ignore Absol, who seemed to be begging her.
May felt bad that she had gotten Absol in trouble with Alex, given that she had asked Absol to wake her up.
"Im sorry, I shouldn't have asked Absol to wake you up. It's just that Houndour always wakes me up, so I forgot that some people wouldn't want to wake up like that," May said sincerely.
"No, it just caught me off guard," Alex said awkwardly.
"Do you think we will be out of the woods by the end of today?" Alex asked.
"Ya, we are about 30% the way through, so we will no doubt be out before nightfall, and we can either stay at one of my friend's house or walk to Rustboro and find a pokemon centre to sleep at."
"Your friend won't mind?" Alex asked.
"No, my and the professor normally spend the night there after the woods when he was doing lectures at the Pokemon school," May said as she heated up breakfast.
"Well, a real bed sounds amazing right about now," Alex said, looking back at her tent.
"Well, then, let's eat and get on our way," Alex said cheerfully.
"Can you get the food for Absol and Houndour?" May asked as she finished heating their food up and dished it out into bowls.
May watched as Alex got out two bags of pokemon food, something that shocked May a little as the bagged premium food was five times more expensive than the canned food that she had to buy Houndour.
She would love to buy the bagged food for Houndour, but at 1200 poke dollars per box, each box only had six bags which was 3 days' food at best.
For 1200 Poke dollars, she could buy a hyper potion, or an ultra ball or two full heals, and she had three Pokemon to feed, and the cost would only rise when she had more Pokemon.
May passed Alex her breakfast as they all settled down for the most important meal of the day.
"Is there any other interesting pokemon in the forest," Alex asked.
"Well, there should be some Scyther, and I guess there is a chance for a Breloom, but I wouldn't guess there are many of either knocking about," May said after thinking what else could be in the forest.
"Well, I guess I did get a Pinsir, so I shouldn't be too greedy," Alex said, holding her new Pokeball.
"Im surprised that we even bumped into Pinsir. They usually avoid people at all costs unless they are in a group or protecting something. After putting the camp away, they finally started to walk through the forest with Absol and Houndour walking beside them.
May would have usually returned Houndour back to his Pokeball but couldn't bring herself to do it when Absol was walking next to him. The morning sun had soon risen into the sky as they both walked through the forest in silence.
"Can you hear that?" Alex asked.
May focused on her hearing before she could hear what seemed like two people arguing.
"Ya sounds like an argument," May said.
"Come on, let's go," Alex said, running towards the voices before May could stop her.
May let out a sigh and ran after Alex. She really didn't want to get involved in an argument that had nothing to do with them, and they were two lone girls in a forest on their own.
May soon came up to the scene of a scientist arguing with a thug-looking man in a strange blue-looking uniform. She stopped next to Alex, who was also looking at the two men.
It was clear that the thuggish-looking man was the one that was shouting at the scientist. He was clearly angry at the scientist, and it looked like it would turn into a fight at any moment.
"Hand over the Devon Goods now?" The thug shouted.
"Hey!" Alex shouted at the two men causing them to turn around and look at her and Alex.
"Get lost, kids. This has nothing to do with you," the thug said, looking weirdly at the Absol and Houndour that were silently growling at him.
"The Devon company belongs to my family, of course. It has something to do with me," Alex shouted angrily.
"Miss Stone, he trying to steal Devon Goods bound for Slateport," the scientist said, running next to May and Alex.
"Hmm, if you won't hand it over when I ask nicely, then I will have to use force," the thug said, grabbing two Pokeballs from his belt.
"Go Poochyena, Zubat," the grunt said, throwing two Pokeballs out.
"Hmm, as if I would let you. Go Absol," Alex said as Absol jumped forward and let out an intimidating growl that made the Poochyena step back slightly.
May was surprised she knew that Mightyena sometimes was able to frighten other Pokemon at the start of the battle but wasn't aware that other Pokemon could as well.
"Houndour, let's go, buddy," May said, backing up Alex.
Alex shot her a small smile before looking back at the grunt, who looked far less confident than when he was shouting at the scientist.
"Poochyena use tackle. Zubat use bite," The grunt said quickly.
"Absol, dodge and use headbutt," Alex shouted as the Poochyena was running towards Absol.
"Houndour, use smog," May said as the Zubat tried to fly down and bite Houndour May watched as the Zubat got lost in the smog, and Houndour slipped out of the smog.
They had practised this move set many times till the point that Houndour knew what to do after using smog. May wanted it like this so that the other trainer and Pokemon didn't know the plan, as she wouldn't need to shout it out.
"Houndour, use flamethrower," May ordered as Houndour opened his mouth, and a torrent of fire was unleashed out into the smog that caught on fire and turned into a massive fireball.
After the fireball died, the Zubat dropped to the ground, knocked out with some nasty-looking burns from the fire. The thug hadn't even noticed as he was paying more attention to the battle that was going on with Absol and Poochyena.
Absol and Poochyena were chasing each other around before their heads clashed, and they jumped back to repeat the same thing again.
"Absol, end this use, Night Slash," Alex said.
The horn that wrapped around Absol's head started glowing a dark purple colour before Absol jumped into the sky and slashed its head towards the Poochyena.
A dark blade of purple energy shot out. It slashed into the Poochyena, making it collapse onto the ground. The blade continued on, cashing into a giant bolder, making it explode into rubble.
"No, damn it," the thug said, returning the two Pokemon to their Pokeballs and glaring at the two girls.
"Grrr…You've got some nerve meddling with Team Aqua!" the thug said before running away.
"Thank you so much, Miss Stone. I would have been in so much trouble if I had lost these parts." the scientist let out a sigh of relief.
"Why are you even out here alone with the parts in the first place," Alex asked angrily.
"I errr well, I mean..." the scientist said, trying to think of a reason.
"My father will be hearing about this," Alex said before walking over to Absol.
"Houndour, what's a matter?" May asked as Houndour was clawing at a part of the broken bolder.
May and Alex walked over to where Houndour was at and looked at the rock he was clawing at. There was an orange-size clear Orb with a glowing helix of red and grey in the centre of the Orb.
"Do you know what that is?" Alex asked May.
"No, never seen anything like it, and the professor hasn't ever mentioned anything looking like that before.
"Let's take it with us. Maybe my dad's company will know what it is, and if not, im sure they would like to examine it and see what they could learn about it," Alex said, picking it up and pulling the last of the stone from the Orb.
"Okay, let's go. I want to be out of the forest by nighttime," May said.
"And you are not to go out of view. I can't believe you brought such important things with you," Alex said, her fury palatable.
May quitely walked alongside Alex as they made their way through the forest, with the atmosphere being tense the entire time. May guessed that she could understand why Alex was so angry. If someone had brought all of her research that she had done on Pokemon into the woods for no real reason, she would be angry as well.
Alex didn't ask about finding any more pokemon as they walked through the woods. Instead, she seemed 100% focused on just getting out of the woods. May pulled out the Orb they had found in the rock.
She was sure that it was something important and maybe even a new discovery. The Orb had a slight glow and was warm to the touch, but although Absol and Houndour were curious about the Orb, nothing happened when they were near it.
May wondered if the Orb only affected set Pokemon, but testing that would be incredibly hard. They didn't even know how many Pokemon were in all the region combined, but from Kanto to Hoenn, there was over 360 Pokemon, with more being found each day.
If this Orb only worked on one of them, it would take a long time to find which one it was, and they still didn't know how to use the Orb. Was it something they had to hold, or did they need to eat it like evolution stones?
"You okay?" Alex asked, breaking May out of her thoughts.
"Ya, why wouldn't I be?" May asked.
"Well, you have been staring at that Orb for the past hour..." Alex replied, giving her a concerned look.
"Sorry, this is just something new about Pokemon. I can't help but get excited about it. Anyway, we are nearly at the flower shop with real beds," May said, happily putting the Orb away again.
"What a bed with real pillows?" Alex asked sarcastically.
"Yep, a bed with real pillows," May confirmed as she could see the end of the forest in sight. Which was good as the sun was close to setting, and they wouldn't have time to gather firewood.
"There it is, the Pretty Petal flower shop," May said, pointing to a building that had tons of flowers surrounding it with some berry trees to the left."
May licked her lips, hoping that the three sisters would have some Oran berry pie for dessert.
May opened the door and stepped inside the shop.
"Sorry, we are closed," A voice shouted from the backroom.
"How cold, Natalie!" May shouted back.
"May!" Natalie shouted back as it could be heard as she rushed to the front room.
"Oh my god, it's been ages since you last visited," Natalie said, pulling May into a hug.
"It's a four-day round trip for me to come here and visit," May said with a laugh.
"Nicole, Rita, come here. May is here," Natalie shouted into the backroom of the shop.
Even after Natalie shouted towards the backroom for her two sisters, they still didn't come to the storefront.
"I guess they are in the back garden with the Lotad," Natalie said with a sigh.
"So, who is this?" Natalie asked, looking at Alex.
"This is Alex. We are going on a journey together," May said, introducing Alex.
"Wow, you are leaving the professor. I didn't think it would ever happen," Natalie said, giving May a playful nudge.
"The professor as me to go with her and said every great researcher has to go out in the field on their own at some point. I am still going to be a professor of Pokemon in the future," May said confidently.
"What are you going to research? Lots of the mysteries of Pokemon are already being researched," Natalie asked.
"I not sure at the moment," May said, downtrodden.
"Who is the guy?" Natalie asked.
"He is leaving and returning to the Devon company," Alex said, glaring at the man who was sweating under her gaze.
"Right ya err, nice to meet you, but I have to be going," the scientist said as he quickly left the house and jogged down the road towards Rustboro city.
May let out a chuckle seeing the man running away from a 16-year-old girl when he was in his mid-20s.
"He best bring those parts right back to the Devon corp, or else," Alex said in a dark tone.
"Well, let's go to the back garden and find my other two sisters; dinner is almost already," Natalie said as they walked through the shop towards the back garden.
"You keep a pond full of Lotad?" Alex asked.
"Well, that wasn't the idea from the start, but they love the pond and the flowers, and it's good for business as we charge for entry for people that want to look at all the Lotad, and if they get lucky, they may see a Lombre," Natalie said to Alex.
"Shame you don't have any Ludicolo," May said.
"We would need to give a Lombre a water stone, and they are expensive and rare," Natalie said with a roll of her eyes.
"Are evolution stones really that rare and expensive," Alex asked.
"Ya, they are mainly sold by trainers that find them. They are so rare they don't have a set price. It depends on who is selling it and the stone and who is buying it," May explained.
As they came to the large pond in the back garden, Alex looked around with amazement. She had expected that there would be 5 or maybe 6 Lotad in total. However, there must have been at least 20 of them that were easy to spot, and she was sure some of the lily pads in the pod were also Lotad.
There were even two Lombre relaxing at the side of the pond. Alex had expected them to all run away as they made their way closer to the pond, but to her surprise, none of the Lotad seemed to be shy or scared of them at all.
"I think this is a perfect place to have dinner as long as the Lotad don't steal all the Oran berry pie," May said with a smile.