"May...May?! Speak to me! Wake up!"

Uuuuh….I'm really nauseous. H-how come everything's a dark blur? My stomach; it feels like someone decked me hard there. Did that happen?

"Maaaaaa-*THWACK" Ow!"

"Stop bothering the girl! She needs her rest!"

"Okay…"

Everything felt like it melted together in a soupy mix of fogginess. That's where my mind wandered aimlessly for the longest time. It wasn't til I began to feel conscious enough to open my eyes, did my brain finally start to clear. Eventually, my vision came into focus and I realized I was laying on a futon in a small room. The walls were flat, dark wooden panels stopping halfway to meet the beige colored drywall. A few fabric wall scrolls decorated three sides of the room. Strange-looking murals of creatures decorated them. The fourth wall was a screen door. Silhouettes of humanoid shapes would occasionally by. Ya know, this feels like déjà vu.

Getting up proved to be the most challenging thing to date. All my limbs stung from cuts or bruises I mysteriously acquired. But the most painful part of my body originated from my torso. Aside from the sore stomach, a searing pain began from the abdomen and ran up to stop on my upper left side.I didn't want to inspect it out of fear of what I might find, but a shred of courage allowed to careful hands to lift up my shirt and see.

Where the pain had been, was now covered by strips of puffy white bandages. Man I got messed up pretty bad. You know, I gotta wonder whether my family's insurance plan covers all these brutal injuries if I ever land myself in the hospital. But enough about that, let's find out where everyone is!

Finally managing to get on my feet, I stumbled around until balance was achieved. Good, now go over to the door; that's it, you got-" $ %:0!". Balance had not been achieved. What happened instead consisted of me slipping and falling on the wooden floor. Cursing in agony while withdrawing into a ball.

The commotion I made caused the sliding door to open. I was at least able to turn my head and look up at Chirpie who stood in the doorway. He observed me for a minute before collecting me in his arms. No! He's gonna put me back in the futon! "C-Chirpie no! I don't…I'm not tired…". Just from hearing my voice, it was clear how much of a challenge it was to talk. Every breath going in or out hurt. Naturally, my firebird ignored the protests as he tucked me back in. Chirpie then sat down next to the door and observed me. Darn it, he wasn't gonna leave til I fell asleep! Let's see how long I can last; I'll show you!

-Seven Hours Later-

Aw man, not again. Yet another attempt thwarted by my own Pokemon! You may have won the second round, but round three will be mine!

Thankfully this time around, moving any part of my body wasn't so painful; just dull and stinging sensations. Although, I could feel the larger wound throb. It was warm to the touch.

I got on my feet once more to find it was much easier than before to stay upright and waddle over to the door. With some effort, I slid it open to walk right in the living room. The floor here was covered in tatami mat with a bleak wooden table and zabutons in its center. The old couple, Professor Birch, Chirpie and Razor had occupied the cushions. Aside from the two Pokemon, all three adults had worried looks on their faces.

"Grrmh...Professor?"

"May! You're awake!"

His sullen gaze lit up from seeing me conscious. He got up from his sitting position to embrace me in an ursaring-like hug. Yeah, everything was still hurting a lot on contact. Only able to handle small increments of pain, I had to force myself out of the excruciating hug. He was puzzle as to why I had repelled his efforts of concern, until I informed him that his kindness literally felt like it was killing me! Professor Birch expressed his apologies and bade me to sit down.

The older couple took better note of observing my current condition and offered me tea. My hands held the little black painted ceramic cup to enjoy the warmth of its power green, liquid contents inside. Occasional sips from the cup was all it took to heat up the rest of me.

"How are you feeling Miss? We all saw you take quite the tumble,"

"Alright I guess, but I don't remember much aside from getting hit by that rock,"

"Well...it wasn't really pretty, but I can fill you in on the details. You see-"

I was in absolute shock after May was standing beside me one minute, and rolling off to her doom in the next. As it turned out, that 'stray rock' came from the camerupt's rock slide; which must have bounced off one of the other rocks and hit her in the stomach. Thankfully, Chirpie heard his trainer's cry of distress and reacted much faster. He abandoned the battle with the camerupt to rescue May.

However, the camerupt took advantage of the distraction to attack him. Fortunately, Razor quickly stepped in and intercepted the assault. It goes without saying, Razor took the hit, or more specifically a bite to the arm. My Pokemon did his best to keep a stern face despite the feeling of teeth crushing down on the appendage.

"So futile..."

I looked up to see the woman stare down at us with little concern. Also, she was really creeping me out. Was she a spinster? I wouldn't be surprised if she was. Ya know, I'm pretty sure this is what might happen to May if Norman kept her single; stale with no hope of a personality and an unhealthy obsession with her job.

"Futile with what? You haven't even gotten to know Razor yet!"

"…..Grass-types...are boring..."

So that's what she thinks huh? Maybe its time I start making an impression.

"Razor!" I commanded with a clenched fist. "Low sweep the camerupt's legs!"

In a flash, my sceptile dropped down with his free arm supporting his body weight. A leg fiercely knocked against the fire camel's stocky limbs; causing it to fall forward. I was (to say the least) very glad to be out of the way while they fell downward. For the most part, Razor was very capable of handling himself in situations like this; but the camerupt possible had been another story. Its heavy mass made them both travel down the mountain at dangerous speeds. At this rate, they'll roll off the mountain and sink into the ocean like anchors!

Just as I imagined, there was the cliff; the same one May fell off of. Another swift glance at the girl wrought out an unpleasant feeling. Any trainer would be worried about their Pokemon rolling towards instant death, but she only stared at them. Not a single muscle twitched in change. No reaction that any normal human would display. Gosh, someone clearly DIDN'T have a boyfriend when they were younger!

I looked back at the sorta battle, and Razor was able to break from the cycle of tumbling in time to latch on a craggy boulder using his free arm. He didn't look very pleased with having to support the enemy Pokemon by the bitten arm as he hung on. It also didn't help that half of his opponent's body was over the edge.

Suddenly, a loud squawk resonated in the air. Razor's face twisted in surprise and began to pull up his enemy from the cliff. The dark/grass-type pulled like his life depended on it. He kept at the task until the camerupt was back on land; along with Chirpie and an unconscious May. Thank arceus! She's still alive!

I wasted no time running over to them. May's blazekin dusted his trainer off and put her in my arms. He didn't look very happy when he laid eyes upon the cruel, older woman. Her cold stare in response left an lasting uncomfortable feeling in my gut. She then started to walk robotically towards us without so much as batting an eye. The camerupt's pokeball was clenched in her palm. Boldly, she passed Chirpie, Razor and I to call back her Pokémon and leave without giving us another thought. We didn't try going after her mind you, because my future daughter –in-law was in need of medical attention.

"And that's how we made it here! I'm pretty glad Chirpie and Razor reacted when they did! That Team Magma woman sure was scary!"

"Not really; just super creepy. But what were those Magma losers doing up here anyway?"

"Weeeeeell, I don't know much about that, but they do. Excuse me ma'am, but can you explain it again to her? My memory's not so great,"

"O-of course, but I don't know much good it'll do,"

The old woman first refilled our teacups before sitting down beside her husband and clasped trembling hands together. Like some people who began their story-telling, she seemed to look beyond their listeners and peer back into their past.

This tale that she spun had originally started 4,000 years ago before Hoenn officially existed. Man was a young race that still struggled to make their way into the world. However, man and Pokemon alike were constantly threatened by two titans who waged battle each other. One who ruled the sea; Kyogre. The other who dominated the earth, Groudon. Every day they tossed the elements at one another in a never-ending war for victory. Although, it only caused a violent stalemate in every encounter.

Losing hope for their survival, man prayed to the heavens above to be saved from the titans' destruction. Their answer? A long, majestic sky being coming down and quelling the battle with its mighty force. It spat out two gems and sealed their powers before banishing them to the depths of oblivion.

As quickly as it came however, the sky being retreated back into the heavens; leaving man to watch over these two mysterious gems.

Come to find out, the people who were supposed to be keeping guard over the relics started dying out. This old couple who sat across the table from the professor and I, weren't even apart of them! They were asked to do it a favor from the previous caretaker before dying. Yeesh, that must be a freakin blow to have a civilization die out the way it did. Whether I believe the story or not, something still needs to be done about that Magma nerd, Maxie.

"Hey I can get back that crystal gem thing, no problem at all,"

"How? Team Magma is certainly not the type of people to be opposed so easily,"

"You kiddin? Those dorks are total pushovers when you're mean enough. I only got caught off guard because of a rock! But Team Maple can take em out easy! Sides, who else is gonna help ya? The police?"

Both the old man and woman looked at each other uneasily as if they both suspected the consequences of putting their trust in a teenager. Eventually, they excused themselves from our presence to take an obvious discussion to another room. I think I made a pretty good point.

"Hey May…" Professor Birch started to say as he was suddenly realizing something. Chirpie meanwhile, was in the middle of having a private conversation with Razor. My eyes briefly caught the grass/dark-type's bandaged arm while hearing their squawks and growls.

" You said you know how to deal with them, Team Magma I mean?"

"Yeah! Even that freak Courtney! She's all weird and likes her super nerdy boss!"

"So…does your dad know about all of this?"

Oh crap. It was pretty clear how stumped my face looked as every muscle in my features froze with surprise. I forgot that Professor Birch was besties with dad. If he blew the whistle about what I was doing, then dad would ground me til hell froze over! On the upside, there wouldn't be any more Sycamore, but no freedom to accompany the deal! Good arceus, what do I do?!

"You know, I kinda don't like the idea of you charging head first on a warpath against a criminal organization. I'm gonna have to talk with your dad about this,"

"WAIT! You can't! It'll ruin my training career!"

He already had his pokenav in hand. "Sorry May, but keeping you safe is a higher priority,"

"Come on Professor! Who knows what'll happen if I don't stop Team Magma and…and….it would be a real shame if I also missed having lunch with Brendan in Lilycove City,"

"Albert? Is that you? Hello-"*click*!

"Lunch?"

There was no doubt to this being a shameless tactic, but my determination to apprehend those Magma dorks was like a steel hard resolve. Maybe if I threw Birch some kind of platonic incentive that was his son, he would give me his blessings to continue on. Let's just hope Brendan doesn't catch onto being used like a bargaining chip.

"Yeah, yeah! We were definitely supposed to have lunch when we go to Lilycove!"

"Hm…I dunno…..I mean I could have sworn he said something about taking you on a dinner date when we were talking on the phone last,"

"WHAT?! No he didn't!"

"Eh, maybe you're right. Anyway, I should call your dad-"

"I mean, he totally must have said something about taking me to the department store!"

"You mean the movies,"

"The beach!"

"Deal!" Said the Professor with a cheerful smile. "Then I sincerely wish you to continue to have a wonderful journey!"

His ability to manipulate the situation was eerily similar to Sycamore, but at least it wasn't for completely selfish reasons. Still, my guard should be up with him more, now that he had a dirty secret hanging over me.

Just then, the sliding door to the other room opened. Our hosts came back to the table with a large object in hand. It was that egg-shaped, blue gem. They set it down before seating themselves in a proper manner.

"This orb has the power of Kyogre sealed inside. It has been said that this can be used to pacify Groudon back into slumber if it manages to awaken. But please child…stop those vagrants; for they do not know what kind of power they are meddling with,"

"No problem! I'll stop those nerds before they even THINK about doing it!"

"*Squawk!*"

"I mean we'll stop them,"

Chirpie had raised his voice to correct my statement. He was also eager to make a mess of Maxie's plans as much as possible. I couldn't blame his reasoning for wanting to when I saw Razor's arm. The grass/dark-type didn't seem very fazed by it though. He would occasionally stiffen from the stinging pain, but not much else of a reaction was produced.

After that brief conversation, I stuffed the mysterious blue gem in my bag before getting supper. With the meal consisting of tuna and crustaceans, I was considerably happy. We all stayed at the table when we had our fill; talking less about depressing gloom and doom. It wasn't overly happy, but just right as to clear our heads of the ever-present danger of fear for the future. When it got late, everyone went to sleep except for me, since I slept a lot earlier and all.

Instead, I went out of the house and sat on the wooden porch. Everything on Mt. Pyre was very quiet at night. If the moon wasn't shining I was sure that it would be pitch black. A scary as the thought would be on top of a mountain of literal graves, it didn't seem too bad when you looked up.

Accompanying the reflective ball of moon rock, was a countless display of stars. Each one twinkled in delight while they showed off their illuminated splendor. As a kid, I always believed that they looked

close enough to pull out of the sky if you were strong enough to perform the task. It was many years later that I learned about 'light years' and how far away they really were. Still, I never gave up hope.

Just then, sounds of the sliding door opening and closing briefly broke the silence of the night. Looking behind me, I saw that it was Chirpie. He came to me and sat down by my side with an arm around my shoulder. Despite all the battles and elements that went against him, Chirpie's feathers were always soft. My head inevitably gravitated towards his torso to lie against it. Being the small human girl that I was, he didn't mind my meager weight burdening him.

How strange it felt for me to transition from being the big, strong mama to the tiny, frail child in his eyes. He still listened to me and continued to fall for those stupid cookie tricks (via Maxie), but I wondered when he started to think like that. Well, whenever it was, he'll always look like the small, hopping and chirping torchic in my eyes; and that may just be the death of me.

For several hours, we continued to gaze at the vast stars above us in wonder and awe.

...

The next day marked an end to my visit atop of Mt. Pyre. Professor Birch and our hosts bade me good-bye after packing me a small meal to eat for later. I switched out Chirpie for Pelipper, who was very happy to stretch her wings. Since the mountain didn't have many trees or was too confusing to navigate, coming back wouldn't pose much of a challenge. Next stop: Lilycove City!

Unfortunately, my professor couldn't come because he still had work to do, but I grew excited upon hearing that he would be back in the lab in the time it would take me to finish collecting all my badges. Hope you enjoyed your reign of tyranny Sycamore, because its about to come to an end!

"Now May..." He began while putting both hands on my shoulders. "Make sure you keep yourself safe,"

"I will Professor!"

"And eat properly,"

"No problem!"

"And remember your planned beach day date with your future husband/my son! I look forward to hearing ALL about it!"

"Uhhh...yeah...sure,"

Dam, I thought for sure he was gonna forget. Meh, what was I thinking? Of course he wouldn't let that slip his mind: He only attempted to persuade me a million times and then extort me! Ugh, I want to get it over with already.

"But all future family planning aside, you're a pretty great kid to me. I can't be more prouder of you for making it this far. So don't get discouraged and I wish you the very best!"

As corny as that line was, it pulled at my emotions with tears threatening to come out. Fortunately I was able to will them back while keeping my voice from cracking. However, it didn't mean I couldn't allow myself to throw my arms around him in a squeezing hug. He squeezed back in a heart-tugging moment that lasted longer than my brain hallucinated it to be.

Professor Birch may be a clumsy, air-headed guy, but I could almost feel myself grow jealous of Brendan..

...

"*Squawk!*"

"Don't play with me Chirpie! You can see it ahead?!"

My nose tickled from the long blades of grass that brushed against my face. Since the vegetation was too tall for me to walk through, Chirpie thought it to be safer if I clung onto his shoulders. We occasionally got attacked by wild Pokémon, but he perceived them as small inconveniences. Trainers also challenged us on the untrimmed path with vigor. Too bad they weren't as good as Team Maple!

About an hour of uneventfulness passed before boredom took ahold. I was tempted to fall asleep when the fire/fighting-type squawked out in alarm. My eyes immediately widened awake from his announcement; to which I felt skeptical about since all I could see was grass. Upon hearing the unbelieving-sounding statement, Chirpie made me get off his shoulders. Initially, I thought he had been now too mad at me to continue his benevolence any longer; those thoughts only lasted for a fractions of a second until he suddenly picked me up. Right then and there, when I had been raised as high as a male blazekin could with a human teenager, my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets!

Almost bigger than Mauville due to its prosperous ports and still growing populations, this city was like the crown jewel of the Hoenn region snuggled by the animated sea. Its land had been layered in uneven heights; which sparked creative ways to build many structures to wow tourists with. At first glance, the bluffs were a menacing presence that deterred the faint of heart. A second one yielded a cut out set of stairs that traveled all the way down to a vibrant beach. If the water wasn't something to be desired, one could easily look forward to its Art Gallery, Contest Spectacular and majestic Department Store! This was the City of Lilycove.

Like Mauville, the largeness of it all threatened to devour me as I felt very small. It was very fortunate that there was no gym here on top of it, or else I would explode! But to further decrease the possibilities

of that, a good long week might needed to be spent here. Being overwhelmed does not work well for a girl like me. First things first though: To an Inn!

I commanded Chirpie to move forward so we could acquire ourselves a place to stay. He squawked and held me in place until we were clear of the tall grass. I was then let down feet first on the ground to conduct the search. An hour of that made us come across a respectable-looking place with trainer discounts available and Johto-style rooms. The management however looked admittingly unreliable. Getting a room turned out to be a near impossible challenge because of his obsession with his mini-size t.v. he kept eager eyes glued to. When we finally got one, I immediately snuggle myself under the covers while Chirpie stayed up to do some channel-surfing.

...

When I woke up the next day, I found my battle partner asleep with the remote still in his hand and the channel turned to an Orre novella: Mi Amor, La Corphish. I slipped out of my futon to turn it off and put some blankets over him. He shifted a little to better cuddle up in them; Chirpie looked so cute.

Shortly after that, my things were gathered together before being promptly shoved into my compartmentalized bag. The task was done quickly to allow more time for me to get dressed. Although just putting on clothes and fixing hair was supposed to only last a minute or two, my version lasted fifteen minutes too long. By the time Chirpie woke up, I was dressed and ready to roam the city. He suddenly felt very silly being wrapped up in the comforters

After assuring my Pokemon that there was nothing to be ashamed of and checking out of the place we stayed in, we looked around. Unlike Mauville, the homes weren't strictly a series of apartments. I'd have to describe it like Olivine City: While having fancy, creative-looking buildings, there were also small, quaint homes that rested cozily by the cliffs. It must be quite a view to wake up to.

The two of us visited gift shops to look at all the souvenirs. I bought a small jar filled with beach sand. The little shells mixed in clinked softly whenever it moved. Chirpie...well he bought a t-shirt that said 'Dues Ex Machina' along with an inflatable ball, decorative socks, bath salts, a Red Senpai Ranger keychain and a small fabric replica of a pidgy. Strange choices to say the least, but I had some odd tastes myself.

Now that the small fry were conquered, it was time for the main course: The Lilycove Department Store! Five levels, thousands of items and an endless imagination of what amazing scenarios would occur when we stepped inside.

In the lobby, there was a customer service desk with an unusually long line of people. I asked one of them and found out that it was a line for a special lottery. Trainer ID numbers are cast into a lot while a spontaneous number is manifested. If at least three of those numbers matched, then they get a prize. Personally I'd prefer to not wait for an eternity in a line for something not certain! Time to window shop!

So that's what we did; starting with the second floor full of things for pokemon. Clothes, toys pokeballs, super potions, food, you name it! It was a very useful place to stock up on supplies. My firebird nearly got himself dazed from all the excitement of it. I could have sworn he would have fainted.

We spent three hours on that floor alone before moving up to the third floor: The secret base section. Bitter feelings wrenched my heart from when I had one on the route to Fallarbor Town. It was all Professor Sycamore's fault that I don't want one anymore! Still, I couldn't help but be enamored by the pretty dolls, which caused me to stare at them for a long while.

Then came the fourth floor: The human shopping department. This particular section had been split even further. Clothes, electronics, accessories, toys, ect. It was interesting to try on different clothes, look at all the console games and smell candles, but it was stupid to think that I could buy anything like that and take it with me. Being a trainer was a career of travel and adventure to which they experienced numerous perils accompanied with constant toil. Carrying around a Pexsquare two console can only reap consequences. So I bought the handheld console 4CS and its recent game, Dawn Version.

After justifying the purchase to my firebird, we went to the fifth floor where all the grocery shopping took place. More importantly, this was the place where we stocked up on food and M.R.E.'s (Meals Ready to Eat). When there wasn't any food to forage or hunt, these sealed kits contained dried food that included an entrée, side dish, dessert, crackers a spread, a powdered beverage mix, utensils, a flameless heater, a water proof matchbook, t.p., moist towelettes, seasonings and powdered coffee.

There were mixed feelings about these meals, as their predecessors caused consumers to be…..well….let's just say they didn't agree with their stomachs. The newer ones however, were so amazing! Yeah their sole purpose was to enrich the consumer with enough calories ad nutrients to burn for an entire day, but they really put in effort to make it taste delicious! My favorite meal was the one with roast beef with vegetables, crackers with cheese, chocolate and instant tea.

I grabbed several of those ration packets and ventured into the snack section. Man, I was dying for som. Balbee potato chi-…what is that? What on this good, green earth is THAT?!

Everything was perfectly fine and dandy while going along, but it suddenly turned backward when my eyes fell upon something too familiar to my senses. Of course, the way it impacted those senses were terribly negative no matter how it was looked at. When Chirpie saw them, he automatically moved towards it with extreme interest. And why wouldn't he? They were the source of his addiction and my distinct reminder of the second most deplorable person on the face of the planet after Professor Sycamore!

My firebird took a box of those DAM TEDDIURSA GRAMS and put it in our shopping cart as if they belonged! I stood there in mute silence just staring at the shelf full of them while anger began to stir inside. Brows slowly furrowed to help transform a look of shock into fury. This was when a sales associate passed by and happened to spot us.

"Found the teddiursa grams, I see? We actually have our sale going where you can purchase them at half price! A pretty neat deal since they are a popular brand-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

I suddenly snapped; effectively losing myself to the raging monster that now resided inside born from anger. It hungered to be quenched by its appetite for destruction. Mayhem was its mistress that had seduced the unstable emotion. And as of the moment, self-control was nowhere to be found.

After everyone was able to hear my shrieking, volatile thirst for blood, my instincts caused me to smack the gram box out of Chirpie's hand. In the next instant, that same hand ran across shelves lined with those offending boxes. They clattered to the ground, but it wasn't enough; more infliction was needed. More wilder than any Pokémon, I tore at the boxes with absolute sadism. While doing so, screams that ranged from maniacal laughter to blood curdling shouts filled the floor. People who were only innocent bystanders clearly heard the unholy noises, grew frightened and fled.

"COOKIE?! HOW ABOUT A COOKIE NOW YOU SONOFABITCH?! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

From Chirpie's perspective, he saw me suddenly experience a psychotic break, start knocking some boxes on the floor and proceed to tear/ roll over/ mutilate them until they were only remnants of their former existence. The sales associate had been long gone, but the firebird was still there; looking upon me with a displeased expression. He decided that enough was enough and picked ne up to throw my body over his shoulder I put up a struggle, but my fire-fighter had the obvious advantage.

The cashier was afraid of my madness, but Chirpie paid no attention as he got out my wallet to pay. He turned around for a moment to count all the boxes I destroyed, turned back to count the money, got the bags, rode the elevator with me still crazed, left the department store, walked down the steps to the beach, got onto the beach, waded leg deep in water and tossed me in.

With the sudden feeling of cold, salty water hitting my flesh, I snapped out of my episode and scrambled to the surface. Good arceus! My injury still hur-uh oh. Once I shot my head out of the water and sucked in air, a feeling of anger was now burdening my shoulders. No surprise, Chirpie was staring down at me in fierce disapproval of what just transpired. "Haha….you're not…..mad about what just happened right?"

"…"

"Buddy? Best buds?...Team Maple go?"

"*SQUAWK!*"

"Chirpie no! There are witnesses!"

…..

Remember what I said about wondering how my role changed from being big, strong mama to small, frail child? This was one of those times. In the process, Chirpie somehow gained the authority to punish me when he saw it fit. For one whole hour, he banished me to a park bench and wouldn't allow any privilege of freedom or fun. It felt humiliating as a teenager and awkward when people passed me by and also realize that the trainer was being reprimanded by her Pokémon. This is too agonizing! Something just fall out of the sky and kill me already!

Eventually, Chirpie finally deemed my time out to have been long enough and squawked as a signal to its end. However, he gave me a stern look as a warning of a harsher sentence should another episode occur. My response was a nervous laugh along with the twiddling of my thumbs.

"I…..I promise not to do that again! Can we uh….be friends again?"

"*Squawk*. *Pats head*"

"Yes! Team Maple gooooo-"

"Hey May! Over here!"

We suddenly turned around to see an unexpected friend calling to us. Wearing deep blue swimming trunks minus the hat and holding an oversized bag was none other than Brendan Birch. Standing next to him was Kippie; who had her lips smeared with brightest color of pink lipstick mankind has ever seen. And-yo. Does Brendan have abs? I thought he was just skinny?! Granted, he worked well with his hands, but I expected him not to have abs! Okay May, his eyes are up there; stop looking down-"Looks like you made it! How did it go with my dad?"

Before I knew it, Brendan and Kippie were close to us with relaxed stances. Remembering that he asked a question, I managed to spout something by out. "Oh! Well he's doing okay! We actually ran into Team Magma and stuff but we-or he kicked their butts,"

"Seriously? You're talking about my dad right?"

"Yeah, I know right? Who knew a grass/ dark-type could put a fire/ground-type at a disadvantage? Anyway, so he kicks their butts and helps me back to this old couple's house where we find out about

some prophecy thing; and you know that I want some payback, so they gave me a magic gem to help put an ancient Pokémon to sleep if it wakes up. But I don't think that'll happen,"

"Okay that's weird…..anything else happen?"

"Nope! But uh, where's Sycamore?"

Asking the question was more out of personal safety rather than legitimate concern. Being accosted by him when least expected was not something to be desired. Suddenly though, Brendan's face went blank. My own features scrunched in confusion as I attempted to figure out his thoughts. He stood there like a frozen computer screen for a few moments until he came back to reality with a nervous expression on his face. "Well…you see…..I lost him," He admitted while starting to hang his head in shame. Huh, interesting development.

"So: Where did you lose him?" My voice spoke with piqued curiosity.

Brendan looked like he felt pretty bad about the ordeal, but honestly, he shouldn't lose any sleep over it. After all, I, May Maple (a.k.a the master of stealth) had done so when the opportunity came up.

"Well, it was just outside of Fortree City. We saw Steven Stone there…..he had uh…..I just remembered! They sell some awesome tasting snow cones on the beach! If we don't hurry, they'll close on us!"

With that quickly said, my bestie very quickly changed moods and ushered me back to the beach. That was pretty weird, but hey: Gotta fulfill that agreement to Professor Birch somehow! Plus Professor Sycamore was probably lost somewhere on the route to Lilycove or just stayed in Fortree. I was safe from any torture for now. Although the back of my mind was still interested about why Brendan was avoiding an explanation.

Anyway, all four of us went down the steep steps towards the vast, exciting environment that was the beach. There actually was a small snow cone stand down there; it was against the sturdy cliffs as if it didn't want to be discovered. Our small party each got one with many colors flavoring the ice. It was such a delicious treat for a very hot day.

When we finished, it had been decided to stay here for the rest of the day. It was fortunate that Sycamore wasn't around or else I wouldn't be able to put on my beach attire. Hiding behind a large rock while commanding the males not to look, I commenced changing into my crimson one-piece. Upon taking off my undershirt however, a lingering pain reminded me not to go play in the water. Every time I moved suddenly or touched the healing wound, pain struck my insides with little mercy. Whew, okay. Don't mess with it too much.

After I got on my swimsuit, my first order of business was to start the good ol' beach tradition of burying people in the sand! Brendan became very hesitant to do this for some reason; even when I told him that our spot would be close to shore. It was only under the terms that Kippie would be the one digging and it being away from the shore, would he finally agree to participate. The big/ adorable water/ground-type of course happily agreed to take upon this task as she began to make human sized holes in the soft earth. I went in first and was buried up to my neck. We all laughed, got me out of the hole and switched with Brendan. My bestie enjoyed himself after being shown how non-lethal the fun was.

Our next activity included Brendan and I playing with the beach ball while Chirpie and Kippie had been left to their own devices. I occasionally looked back to see his swampert showing my blazekin her make-up box. Brendan sighed heavily when I inquired about her new tastes. Apparently Lisia-chan was to blame. After one of the Contest Spectaculars, she saw Kippie sniffing around the cosmetics on top of the marble vanities in the dressing room, taught her how to hold the make-up tools and watched as she created a monster. Pikachu was the main victim of the abuse; and he was tormented going through every ordeal of it. Speaking of Lisia-chan and make-up:

"So you still going to those Contest Spectaculars? I know its not really your style and all, but I was planning on going tomorrow. I'm only second place in the contest's cool category, and I have a feeling I'll luck out this time,"

"Are you kidding? You bet I am! And when I rock the cuteness category, we'll celebrate by eating ourselves to death at that barbecue place next to the department store!"

"Sweet! It's a date! As friends, I mean,"

Brendan was quick to correct himself on the interpretation of the word, but I wasn't so paranoid or narrow-minded like before. Besides, he doesn't even know that we're on one right now. Although, it was a date born from extortion.

The day was setting, turning the sky an orange-blue color that tinted over hanging clouds mauve, pink and red. Chilly breezes started coming through and dissuading beach goers. However, the four of us (mainly Brendan and I) had no trouble staying. A strange sense of comfort came over me as I laid my head on Brendan's shoulder. He didn't seemed bothered by the sudden weight. Together, we watched the sun slip underneath the horizon.

*Continued in Chapter 31*