"Flygon, use Dragon Claw!"

"Counter it with a Waterfall, Swampert!"

The two mighty Pokémon clashed as the audience in the stadium roared with excitement. The Swampert was being commanded by a boy in a strange white hat, their opponent being the Elite Four's final member, the dragon master Drake. Brendan grit his teeth as he saw Drake's Flygon starting to gain the upper hand in terms of strength, pushing Swampert backwards slightly. The two Pokémon jumped away from each other as Drake smirked.

"Time to finish this! Use Hyper Beam, Flygon!"

The audience tensed up as they heard the command, knowing a direct hit would almost certainly end the match. Nobody in the audience, however, was as worried as May. She had been sitting in the front row through all of the battles so far to support her neighbor and friend, and she could tell that he had trained hard for this. To lose before even facing the Champion would be nothing short of a shame. Still, she had the utmost faith in Brendan's skill as a trainer.

"You can do it, Brendan!" May cheered loudly, getting the boy's attention. "I believe in you!"

Those words made Brendan smile and ignited a flame in his heart. He and Swampert looked each other in the eyes and nodded. It was time. Raising his arm in the air and pressing a finger to his Mega Ring, Brendan cried, "Swampert! Mega Evolve to block that attack!"

There were gasps and murmurs of shock in the audience.

"Block a Hyper Beam?"

"Can that even be done?"

"Is he insane?"

May simply smiled to herself.

"No. He's just Brendan."

Within seconds, Swampert's body had shifted and became bulkier, stronger, and perhaps even a bit faster as well. The now towering Water type Pokemon let out a roar as its transformation was completed and made a "bring it on" motion at its opponent with a finger. Drake's Flygon glared and opened its mouth wide, firing off a powerful Hyper Beam towards Swampert. The bulky Water type simply stood with its large hands in front of it and took the hit, the powerful attack now collecting into the Mega Swampert's hands in the form of a large orb. The crowd let out a gasp as they witnessed such an event. Brendan wore a confident smile on his face as May and Drake were left stunned along with the rest of the audience.

"Impossible," Drake muttered.

His Flygon, now more frustrated than ever, began to intensify the attack. Swampert grunted, but it continued to hold the heat in its hands, even beginning to walk towards its opponent. By now, the crowd was almost entirely silent out of shock. Exactly how strong was his Pokémon? As the energy orb began to grow even more, water began to collect under Swampert's feet until it formed a surging torrent that propelled it at Drake's Flygon at incredible speeds. Seeing this, the dragon type tried to cancel its attack, but it was too late. By that point, the Water type had already used the water to throw itself high into the air and had thrown the Hyper Beam ball downward, striking the Flygon and creating a massive explosion. Once the dust had cleared, the audience could see Flygon lying in a crater, unconscious.

"Flygon is unable to battle! In a shocking display of power and skill, Brendan has won the match!"

The crowd roared in excitement once more as Drake recalled his Pokémon, quietly thanking it for its hard work. Swampert returned to its normal form and tackled his trainer affectionately, being rubbed on the head and praised for its efforts.

"Great job, Swampert! I knew you could do it!"

As he began to stand up, Brendan was nearly knocked over once again by a familiar brunette.

"Brendan! You guys were amazing!" May exclaimed, giving Brendan another of her incredibly strong hugs. Used to it by now, Brendan merely smiled and returned the show of affection. The audience made an "awwww" sound as a large screen displayed Brendan and May on camera surrounded by hearts, causing both of them to blush once they saw it.

"What are you waiting for?" a disgruntled man shouted. "Kiss her!"

The crowd began to chant, "KISS!", over and over again, and the two neighbors stared into each other's eyes, their faces redder than ever.

"May…"

"Brendan, I…"

"The next battle will commence shortly! The challenger, Brendan, versus the current Champion of the Hoenn region, Steven! Stay tuned for the battle of the century!"

"Oh," Brendan started, "Right. I'm not quite finished here…"

"I-It's alright," May stuttered, a little disappointed but trying to hide it. "This is your big moment, Brendan. We'll meet up later! And don't worry, I'll be cheering you on in the front row the whole time!"

"May… Thank you," Brendan smiled, brushing a loose strand of May's uniquely-styled hair out of her face. "I mean that. Really… You've always been there for me, and I- "

"AHEM," the announcer cut in. "I would like to remind the challenger that he still hasn't healed his Pokémon yet and the Champion is on his way right now." "Alright already, geez," Brendan grumbled. "Well, I'd best get back to it then…"

"Go get 'em, tiger," May whispered, planting a kiss on Brendan's cheek. The audience applauded at this display, the same man from before shouting his approval through the roof as security hauled him out of the stadium.

"Pert?" Swampert asked. 'What's a tiger?'

It was finally over. After a lengthy and grueling battle, the mighty Steven had fallen. Standing in his place was Brendan, the new Champion of Hoenn League Champion! The crowd could barely control their excitement and roared their approval, cheering even louder when Brendan and Steven shook hands, officially cementing the younger trainer as Champion. May cheered louder than ever, making her way down the stadium's bleachers and right into her neighbor's arms once again.

"Brendan! I always knew you could do it," the brunette beamed, pulling off Brendan's hat and messing with his hair.

"Ah, c'mon… It's really not that big of a deal," Brendan blushed. "Besides, I couldn't have done it without my team."

Leaning into the hug slightly, he whispered in May's ear, "And especially not without you."

"Oh, Brendan…" May trailed off, her face now as red as her hair bow.

The two teens pulled away from each other to gaze into each other's eyes. The audience's cheers drifted further and further away as Brendan and May became the only two people in the world. Slowly, Brendan began to close his eyes and lean forward.

'Oh my Arceus, he's actually doing this,' May thought to herself.

'Oh my Arceus, I'm actually doing this!' Brendan shouted in his head.

This was it. This was their big moment. After months of chasing down villainous teams, training their Pokémon, and exploring the vastness of the Hoenn region, they were finally going to kiss! Now nothing could stand in the way of the two teens confessing their feelings for each other!

... Or so they thought.

Suddenly, a loud boom filled the air, causing the audience to cover their ears and the two young lovebirds to abruptly break apart, looking for the source of the noise. To their surprise, a giant golden ring of some sort had appeared in the air! A purple vortex had formed within the bizarre ring as an unfamiliar screech was heard. But perhaps most shocking was the man that had fallen out of the vortex and was heading straight for the ground. The crowd gasped and screamed in horror, with many covering their eyes or fleeing the stadium. Brendan and May were momentarily stunned before springing into action.

"Gardevoir!" May called, releasing her Pokémon, "Catch him with Psychic!"

"Voire!"

The Psychic-Fairy type obliged immediately, raising its arm into the air to slow the man's descent to a crawl. May's Gardevoir put the man on the ground softly, where May, Brendan, and the few who remained could see that he was not moving. The man had on a brown, worn-out trench coat that had a strange note, a badge of some sort, and a Mega Stone in one of its pockets. As May stared at the mysterious man, Brendan looked at the sky only to see that the hole had vanished entirely. A Nurse Joy rushed onto the scene and began to check the man for a pulse.

"Is… Is he…?" May began.

"He's fine, just unconscious," Joy replied soothingly. "Though I'm really not sure what to do about this… I've never treated a patient who fell out of a hole in the sky before."

"Alright, people," Steven addressed the few spectators who had stayed, "thank you all for coming out today, but we at the Pokémon League have everything under control. Please go home and take care of yourselves."

Murmuring to themselves, the small crowd dispersed and left the stadium. Steven, meanwhile, took the note and Mega Stone out of the unconscious man and began to observe both items. The Mega Stone seemed like any other, but this one appeared to belong to a Pokémon not originally from Hoenn. Steven couldn't quite pinpoint its origin, and he figured that the stone deserved further investigation. Pocketing the Mega Stone, he then looked at the note and saw that it some parts of it were faded, becoming illegible as a result. Regardless, Steven began to read the contents aloud to the best of his ability.

"l00k3r,

Find...girl...keep...U...Bea..."

"What does that even mean?" Brendan asked, clearly perplexed.

"I'm... not sure," Steven muttered. "Find girl... that could be referring to anybody. I can't understand the rest of it."

"What even was that thing in the sky anyway? I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before," May spoke up, clearly still amazed at what she had just witnessed. "Have you, Brendan?"

Hearing this, Brendan sheepishly placed a hand behind his head and gave a nervous laugh.

"Aha... well, now that you mention it, that big portal did look kinda familiar... In fact, I think I actually might have seen something like it awhile back."

"Really now?" Steven inquired, raising an eyebrow. "Do tell."

"See, Latias and I were flying around Hoenn," Brendan began, "and we saw something sparkle on one of the smaller islands. We went down there to check it out and it was a... portal, of some sort."

"A portal?" May piped up, eyes widening. "Where did it lead to? Did you go inside of it?"

"No, but I heard strange cries from inside... Pokémon I probably haven't even seen before," Brendan continued.

"Fascinating... you don't suppose they might have something to do with this man?" Steven theorized.

"I really don't know... What's going to happen to him, anyway?"

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on him. In the meantime, I think you two deserve a break from all the action," Steven smiled. "Go home and rest with your loved ones, Champion."

May couldn't help but notice that Steven seemed to be eyeing her when he mentioned "loved ones", and her face began to redden as a result.

"R-Right," Brendan stuttered, flushing as well. "Will do."

Bidding farewell, Brendan began the long walk home, May not too far behind.

Hooooly crap, you guys. I am soooo so so sorry I didn't release this chapter sooner! I've rewritten it multiple times but I could never get the ending just right. :/ To be honest, I'm still not one-hundred percent sure about this one, but I figured I've kept you guys waiting long enough. Still, though, I do appreciate each and every one of you taking the time out of your day to read this. :) As always, reviews of all kinds are welcome! Tell me what you liked, didn't like, improvements that could be made, etc. Thank you all once again, and I hope to hear from you soon!

UPDATE 6/2/17 - Hey, everybody! It's certainly been a few months, hasn't it? College has been keeping me down, but now I'm hoping to get back up and start writing for fun again! I actually went back and fixed the scene dividers in this chapter, and by that I mean I finally learned how to use scene dividers. ^^; Eheh... I plan to go back and fix the formatting of the older chapters as well, and maybe even rewrite a couple of them. I left this chapter alone in terms of story because I currently like where the plot appears to be headed and I haven't written myself into a corner (looking at you, Sinnoh Saviors!). For now, though, I'm working on the next chapter which should be up sometime this weekend provided I can get myself up and running again as I should. As always, all forms of feedback are welcome and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!