As usual, here is the latest installment of May's Belated Journey. I know I say this a lot, but I am extremely grateful for everyone who's read this story, as well as any feedback that can be offered. :)
Chapter 11Humming a soft tune, May pointedly ignored Harley's dark glower from before her. She was once again keeping up appearances that everything was all right, and had a sneaking suspicion that the purple haired man was aware of her ploy. After all, they'd been travelling through the forest for a while, and she still had the same conundrum. There was absolutely no progress with her appeal, and May was beginning to think she was cursed. Not even Solidad or Dawn could offer her a decent option for an appeal, not that she'd discussed it much with them. After all, Dawn had offered to loan May some of her own pokémon, though May wanted to use her own, not just for morale, but also to make a point that she could accomplish this with their support. As for Solidad's suggestions, she'd just hinted that May would find inspiration in the least likely of moments. Whilst she knew the older woman meant well, May felt it did nothing to help her own mental block. She felt like a Ryhorn Racer whose pokémon's foot had been broken, a wrestler whose Machamp had been knocked out or an artist whose Smeargle had abandoned it. Whilst those analogies seemed to fit her predicament, at the end of the day, she knew she had the full support of her pokémon, and that they would do anything to help her out of this rut.
Staring down at her Xtransceiver, May wondered if she should finally pick up the courage and contact the one person who'd always guided her, inspired her. Whilst he'd indefinitely gloat about his own abilities and prowess with appeals, and probably goad her on, claiming how inferior she was, the man had always found a way of instilling ideas in her mind in the least likely ways. It seemed that she really needed his support now, but how could she possibly bear to call him after so many years of silence from either side?
Shaking her head, she pushed aside such thoughts. The man's stillness alone reiterated how alone she truly was in this. After all, Harley's flare was dramatic and dark, Dawn's was effeminate and flashy, whilst Solidad simply brought out elegance in even the unlikeliest of pokémon. Meanwhile, Drew had strived for perfection and sophistication, never accepting second best, even if it put a strain on his relationship with his Pokémon. Then there was May, she, well, she'd always gone for a firey spirit, going with the unlikely where possible, and encouraging her Pokémon to the best of her ability.
Looking up at the sky, May wondered if there was any way she should pray to Arceus for inspiration, or if that would be desperation eating at her. If only there was a sign for her, but there wasn't anything above her, but branches, blue sky and the glare of two bright suns above her.
Blinking, she shook her head slightly. There was no way what she saw was real. Maybe she'd finally lost her mind from the stress. Max would laugh at her and tease her for needing the prescription glasses he'd worn as a child, though it would only be a poor attempt at hiding his own concern for her.
Rubbing her eyes, she blinked slightly, hoping to remove some of the strain from her eyes. Once she was certain her eyes were fine, she looked back up in the sky. There, before her, was the face of one sun to her left and another to her right.
Blinking, it took her a moment to process what she was seeing before she gasped at the realisation. Yes, she was definitely seeing two suns in the sky above them.
'Dawn, do you see that?' May called as she grabbed her bluenette friend's hand in shock.
The woman beside her looked up to gasp as well, 'no way, that's impossible!'
'What is?' Solidad frowned, turning to glance at the two youngest of their group who were gaping up at the sky in clear awe.
'Oh my Groudon, Solidad there's two suns in the sky!' Harley piped up, his green eyes widening in shock as he came to a halt.
Hearing this confirmation, May realised just how unlikely the scenario would be. Frowning, the woman took a leaf out of Iris' book and began trying to climb the nearest tree to have a better look at the second sun. The keyword being trying; she'd never been as nimble as an Aipom and it was becoming increasingly obvious.
'What do you think it is?' Harley frowned, hands on either side of his hips as he stared up at the sky.
'Could it be… Could it be a pokémon?' Solidad gasped as she stared up at the sky, her pink hair flowing down to her lower back.
'What kind of pokémon would cause a massive light in the sky, hon?' Harley questioned, his tone filled with a scepticism May had heard all too often in her call centre job at Rockson's Boutique.
'It's up there, whatever it is,' Solidad grimaced as they continued to walk towards the light.
'I'm curious as to what it is. Let's consult May's pokédex,' Dawn muttered before glancing up at the brunette.
'Why're we consulting mine?' May frowned as she searched her pockets for the electronic device. Not finding it, she took her eyes off the ground before losing her footing from a nearby large oak tree.
With a yelp, the brunette fell out of the tree and landed right on her behind.
'Ouch, that's got to hurt,' Dawn muttered as she and Solidad winced in unison. Harley, on the other hand, barely suppressed a giggle at May's typically uncoordinated stumble.
'Ooft, that wasn't fun,' May muttered as she clambered up somewhat unsteadily, rubbing her behind as subtly as she could. She silently hoped she hadn't earned herself a grass or mud stain in the process.
'May, hon, are you ok?' Harley questioned, sounding slightly concerned, though still extremely amused.
To her credit, May didn't blink at Harley's amusement, nor did she take any offence. Instead, she took her pokédex out of her pocket and scanned the bright light near them. The clear voice of her electronic pokémon dictionary sounded through their forest, 'Elgyem, the cerebral pokémon. Rumours of its origin are linked to a UFO crash site in the desert 50 years ago.'
'So that's an Elgyem,' Solidad whispered as the light flickered and went out, revealing two saucers stacked together to create an oval.
Focusing her gaze, May noticed that the flying mechanism wasn't floating in a perfect line. How they hadn't noticed it before was beyond her, but it seemed to be haphazard in its direction, one moment floating left, the next right, up, down. Furthermore, it seemed to be battered and beaten, with smoke billowing out of its lower disc.
'Didn't Ash, Cilan and Iris encounter an Elgyem in Unova?' Dawn frowned, placing a finger on her lips in thought as she blinked up at the sky, appearing unperturbed by the direction of the flying object.
'I'm almost certain they did, and from what they said, Elgyem was quite a smart pokémon,' May responded as she watched the battered metal air craft hover slightly. If Elgyem was so intellectually gifted, how could its aircraft be so damaged? It didn't make any sense to her, especially whilst watching it struggle to remain airborne.
'Hon, doesn't it seem a bit odd that that spaceship is—how do I put this tactfully?—battered to the point of near collapse?' Harley frowned, his green eyes surveying his friends with concern.
'Hmmm, I suppose so,' May blinked as she saw a dark purple flash fill the air, aimed straight at the space ship.
'Look out!' May called, stepping forward as the metal air craft swerved to avoid the dark type move.
'Oh no!' Dawn gasped, covering her mouth in surprise.
'It's dodged it,' Solidad whispered, a small smile ordaining her face as the bluenette sighed in relief.
'Except for that second beam right there!' Harley yelped, jumping and clinging onto an unsteady May, who flailed slightly before landing on the earthy ground in a heap.
'Whoa, it's another flash of light!' Dawn whispered, as a bright, blueish white flew through the air, hitting the edge of the spaceship.
With a thunderous bang, the attack's noise resounded around the forest before the ship plummeted back to the ground.
Upon colliding with the ground, the earth shook powerfully, rumbling in response to the foreign object's collision. As one, the group of friends fell onto the ground, losing their balance completely.
'Well, that landing's got to hurt,' Harley grimaced as his gaze was focused on the dust cloud ahead.
'Elgyem,' May whispered before clambering up and rushing forward. Ignoring the calls of her friends behind her, demanding, at least Harley was, for her to slow down.
'Please stay calm, Elgyem, I'll come to protect you,' May muttered as she jumped over a bush, landing unsteadily on her feet. Grimacing as her ankle rolled slightly, she ignored the pain and continued on, her pace only slightly hampered.
'May, wait up!' Dawn's voice hollered, though the brunette ignored it by jumping towards the spaceship just visible through the dust cloud.
Reaching the metal contraption, May searched it for a lever. As soon as her hands touched the metal base, a door appeared and a light blue pokémon with an enlarged, oblong head looked out at her, large green eyes focused on her, drawing attention away from the indentations on either side of her head.
The extra-terrestrial pokémon blinked up at her, lifting a shaky hand up in the air, green, yellow and red lights flashing at her.
'I'm glad to see you're all right,' May whispered as she reached out to hold the pokémon. To her surprise, it whimpered in response, shrinking back from her touch.
Blinking in response, the brunette withdrew her hand, whispering a quick, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.'
In response, the psychic type communicated with its hand, flashing a series of red, green and yellow buttons.
'What's happened here?' Harley's voice frowned, reiterating the question on May's mind.
'I'm not sure, but this Elgyem didn't crash from the sky on its own. Something shot that dark pulse and that ice beam at it,' May glowered as she focused her soft gaze on the wounded Pokémon.
A roar came from either side of the mini clearing, pulling May's attention from her companions whilst sending a shiver of fear down her spine.
On her left was a large, purple pokémon with large, red and white eyes, its bright smile menacing and crude as its gaze was focused upon them. On her other size, however, was a shiny, blue hexagonal snow flake which floated towards them, making quite a few intimidating noises in the process.
'Well that's just rude,' Harley huffed in anger, placing either hand on his hips in clear anger.
'Who are they?' Solidad frowned before she stumbled into Harley, closely followed by Dawn.
'Oooft,' Harley groaned as he fell into May, who in turn, fell onto the ground.
'Can you please get off me,' May groaned into the dirt, sensing the amusement of someone above her.
'W-what is that?' Dawn squeaked, hiding her face in her hands.
'Let's see,' May frowned as she scanned her pokédex. In response, it stated, 'Cryogonal, the snowflake pokémon. They are composed of ice crystals. They capture prey with chains of ice, freezing the prey at -148° F.'
Moving her electronic device to her other side, May's electronic pokédex stated, 'Gengar, the shadow Pokémon. Sometimes, on a dark night, your shadow thrown by a streetlight will suddenly and startingly overtake you. It is actually a Gengar running past you, pretending to be your shadow.'
The Gengar, upon seeing her, launched a dark purple beam at her—a dark pulse attack.
Taking a pokéball from her belt, May twirled on the spot and called, 'Glaceon, take the stage!'
In a flash of white, her fresh snow pokémon twirled out of its ball, landing gracefully on her four legs.
'Use ice beam on that Gengar!' May hollered, unaware of the Cryogonal behind her also launching an ice beam attack.
'May, watch out!' Harley yelped, rushing forward.
'Quilava, use flame wheel on that Cryogonal!' Dawn called, releasing her volcano pokémon.
In response, the blue and cream coloured pokémon rushed forward, encasing its body in a wheel of flame.
'Cryogonal, use ice beam!' A voice snarled, pulling everyone's attention to the other side of their small clearing.
'Who're you?' Solidad frowned, blinking her eyes as she stared at the man.
'The name's AK, Pokémon Hunter, and I want that tiny little extra-terrestrial that you've got your dirty little hands on,' the man laughed, his long red hair blowing in the wind as he closed his blue eyes. His black cape floated behind him for added effect, though May couldn't be certain it was a natural reaction to a breeze she could not feel.
'Well you're not getting it!' May roared back, standing her ground and doing her best not to seem too intimidated.
'May, hon, I think this is a fight we don't want to get involved in,' Harley muttered beside the woman, his green eyes contemplating the opponent on either side of them.
'Harley's right, those pokémon look strong,' Solidad whispered as her blue eyes flickered from one pokémon to the other.
'No way, I don't care how strong those pokémon are, there's one of Elgyem and two of them. Besides, don't we have our own pokémon too? Glaceon wouldn't ever be pleased knowing we had the opportunity to help someone and refused to try. If you're both scared, that's fine, but I'm fighting,' May responded, as her ice type nodded in agreement.
Gengar, in response, roared its name, flexing its arms to the sky.
Humming a soft tune, May did her best to appear unaffected by the blatant intimidation tactic of the ghost type pokémon.
'Glaceon, remember that it's a ghost type so your normal type moves will be ineffective,' May called to the quadruped pokémon.
In response, her Glaceon called her name, staggering its stance to react to any attacks from her opponent.
'Oh, so you know about that, huh?' The man roared with laughter as the giant icicle pokémon hovered before him.
'Come on, Quilava, you can totally wipe that ice type with your fiery spirit!' Dawn called, her deep voice reaching her pokémon, who snorted puffs of smoke in response.
'Cryogonal, freeze that pathetic fire type; Gengar, scar that wretched ice pokémon with your dark pulse!' AK snarled, moving his hands to point at each pokémon in question.
'Freeze my Quilava? I'd like to see you try,' Dawn winked, clicking her fingers in a signal to her pokémon.
May reacted instinctively, calling, 'Glaceon, use ice beam back on that ghost type!'
With a large puff of smoke, Quilava covered her fur, creating a red wheel of fire.
Watching the bluish white light fly through the air, meeting the fire type, Dawn giggled as it encased her pokémon in a perfectly even, shiny coat of ice.
'Now, Quilava, make that thing toast!' Dawn called as her fire type broke free of the ice, unleashing a powerful inferno from its mouth, spiralling an eerie blue flame of fire at the ice type.
Upon collision, the ice type fainted, calling its name weakly.
'That's my Quilava!' Dawn beamed, winking and posing with her hand beside her head, her fire pokémon imitating her stance perfectly.
'Right, Gengar, let's use curse!' AK hollered, clenching his fist before him as his ghost type leered at May's Glaceon.
'Oh no you don't, you're not affecting my pokémon every single turn of this battle! Glaceon, ice beam!' May hollered back, her eyes widening in fear. If Glaceon was hurt, she wouldn't forgive herself easily.
Glaceon, in response, let out a blinding bluish light, sending it straight at the ghost type.
In a flash, the purple pokémon disappeared into thin air, reappearing on the other side of the clearing.
With a small smirk, it created a nail out of thin air.
A flash of pink light flashed past May, hitting the purple pokémon in the face, immobilising it.
Glaceon blinked slightly before shooting another light of ice at opponent, encasing it completely.
'Wh-what, that's cheating!' AK scowled before recalling both of his pokémon, his expression darkening as he gazed at the two younger women.
'Says the man attacking an innocent pokémon two against one!' Dawn scoffed, crossing her arms angrily as she sent the man her darkest glare.
To his credit, the offending opponent didn't shrink back from the bluenette's fury, barely suppressing a yawn.
'Yeah, what kind of a person do you think you are?' Harley growled, backing the younger blue haired woman's claim with a fiery anger of his own, especially upon seeing her anger fall on deaf ears.
'That's easy enough to see, I'm a Pokémon Hunter,' the man guffawed, hitting his knee in humour that only he found amusing.
'Glaceon, freeze him,' May snapped, clicking her fingers for effect. She didn't want to see anyone treat her friends in this manner, especially after all she'd put them through.
Glaceon smirked once before sending the man an ice beam that had him frozen in his doubled over position.
'But what will we do with him now?' Solidad frowned as she considered the frozen man before them.
'I'm more concerned about the Elgyem,' May muttered before turning her gaze onto the crashed space ship.
'Hang on, hon, something is missing from this equation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that pipsqueak pokémon seems to be missing from its homemade floater,' Harley frowned, crossing his arms as he inspected the suddenly empty flying object.
'You're right. Hey, Elgyem, where are you?' May muttered, glancing around the deserted clearing.
The psychic type had completely disappeared, leaving the brunette feeling confused and alone.
'Never mind, we'll take this buffoon to Officer Jenny,' Dawn glowered, clearly still resenting the man for his snide remarks and attack on an innocent.
'How would we do that?' May frowned as she considered the frozen man before them.
'That's easy, hon,' Harley winked, as he not so subtly nudged Solidad.
The pink haired woman, in response, held out a pokéball, enlargening it. The woman with light blue eyes did not say anything other than throw the pokéball into the sky, to release a large, brown bird.
'Whoa, who's that pokémon?' Dawn whispered, glancing nervously at May, who smiled upon seeing the flying type's yellow and red head feathers.
With a sigh, May found her pokédex and scanned the dual type pokémon, 'Pidgeot, the bird pokémon. This Pokémon has a dazzling plumage of beautifully glossy feathers. Many Trainers are captivated by the striking beauty of the feathers on its head, compelling them to choose Pidgeot as their pokémon.'
'Wow, Pidgeot sounds awesome!' Dawn giggled as she stepped forward to inspect the giant bird pokémon up close.
The bird, in response, blinked its beady black eye before turning its attention onto its trainer. The pink haired woman smiled softly, 'Pidgeot, do you think you could carry myself and the frozen hunter?'
The Pidgeot responded with a cheerful chirp before flying over to the frozen man, grabbing hold of his torso in his large pink claws. Doubling back, it hovered above the ground, waiting for its trainer to clamber on.
With a small smile, Solidad walked to her pokémon. Glancing back at her friends, she called, 'I'll meet you at the Pokémon Centre when you arrive.'
'Have a safe trip, Solidad!' May called as she waved at her friend.
'We'll see you in Vientown!' Dawn beamed as Harley squealed, 'Hon, you'd better wait for us, or I'll never forgive you!'
'Don't worry, I'll meet you there,' Solidad responded before nudging Pidgeot on.
The remaining trio stood still, watching her fly off with their captured Hunter.