Chapter 27

"The calm before the storm"

A fully clothed Ash walked outside the suite and toward the lobby of the hotel. Pikachu, Ash's favored Pokemon, stood on his shoulder in its usual cheery demeanor. He walked through the ever bustling lobby trying to squeeze through the number of people trying to make last minute reservations. Even though he couldn't tell for sure, he knew that most people were trying to get a room for the same reason. The upcoming Pokemon surfing competition was only five days away, which meant that the hotels and the beach would be as busy as ever.

Ash held his arms behind his head happily while Pikachu jumped on top of his hat. Having spent the last two days practicing with May and their Pokemon on the race course, he was certain that they were getting better and would be ready for the time of the competition.

The boy walked toward a vending machine and popped out a soda can. He sat down on a small pink cushioned bench as Pikachu jumped off his hat and onto the couch beside him. Ash opened the can of soda and began to gulp it down quickly.

"Ahhh," he said, refreshed from the drink, "It sure is relaxing to be here, isn't it, Pikachu?"

Pikachu agreed.

"It feels like a mini-vacation in a way, with all the time spent on the beach and relaxing in the hotel," he said before taking another sip, "Although after the competition is over we'll have to head back to the Professor and work off our debt for him if we don't win."

"Chuuuu," Pikachu said.

"Heh, I'm sure Professor Latrommi will be proud for us no matter what place we come in. At least we gave it a good try," he said.

He lowered the can of soda onto his lap and sighed, "I'll feel kinda bad for May though, she still spends every night reading through the pamphlet and looking at the pictures of the swimsuits with googly-eyes."

"That's my sister for you, when it comes to bathing suits or clothing she's all over it," Max said, walking toward them.

Ash looked up quite surprised, as Max sat down next to him on the couch and started petting Pikachu in his lap. Pikachu cooed as he scratched him behind the ears.

"What are you doing up so early, Max?" Ash asked surprised, "It's 7:30am!"

"I couldn't sleep anymore. Especially with my big sister still talking in her sleep while hugging that stupid pamphlet," Max said.

"Is she still sleeping now?" Ash asked.

"Hm? No, she woke up right after I did. She's always been that way you know, as soon as I wake up she wants to know what I'm doing and where I'm going," Max said annoyed, "It's like she has a sixth sense where she knows that I woke up, and then she immediately rushes me off to the bathroom so I don't forget to brush my teeth. She's in the shower right now, so I guess she's going to come looking for us after she's done."

Ash nodded and took another drink of his soda.

"By the way, Ash," Max said, pushing his glasses further up on his face, "Do you actually like hugging my sister?"

Ash spat up his soda out of his mouth. He quickly wiped his mouth with his arm and turned to Max.

"Hugging?! When did I hug your sister?" Ash asked nervously.

"For the last two days while you two stand on the surfboard together. You're always holding each other around!"

"That's because we have to, Max!" Ash exclaimed, "The way those surfboards were designed is that the two people have to stand behind one another. If the person in the back isn't holding onto anything they'll fall off the surfboard because of how fast the Pokemon are going in the water."

"I know," Max laughed, he continued to rub Pikachu behind the ears, "But it seems to me like you really enjoy holding onto my sister."

"Hey c'mon!" Ash waved his arms, "Just because you watched us practice yesterday doesn't mean you know what's going on. It's just something we have to do while racing, that's all."

"I think it's a bit icky, I can't imagine myself holding a girl around for so long on a surfboard. I bet you got all of my sister's germs from holding each other so much," Max snorted.

"Yep, that's it! I'm probably contaminated from all of May's girly germs," Ash laughed, trying to edge Max off the subject.

Ash got up and tossed his empty can of soda into the wastebasket beside the couch. He turned readily to the exit of the hotel as Pikachu jumped out of Max's arms and back onto Ash's shoulder.

"Wanna come along, Max?" Ash asked.

"Uh sure, where we going?" Max wondered, getting up from the couch.

Ash and Max walked outside the hotel and started heading down the long sidewalks which led to the boardwalk. Despite the fact that it was early in the morning, there were already a lot of people roaming the boardwalk and heading down to the beach. Many of the stores and vendors were still closed however, so people were killing time by sitting on the picnic tables or heading down to the waves.

Ash had left his surfboard with the vendor down on the beach, it was too much of a hassle to keep such a large board in the hotel room. He wasn't heading to pick up his surfboard however, which got Max a bit confused as to where he was headed.

The two walked over to a small clearing on the beach where there were only a few people around, mostly old folk trying to get some peace and quiet on the sand before the noisy teenagers and kids woke up.

Ash stood still with his shoes half sunk in the white sand. The wind blew through his dark hair as he stared confidently at the shoreline. Pikachu shared its trainers' passion, there was nothing like rising up early and starting the day off right.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Pokeball, throwing it quickly up into the air as Max watched curiously.

"Come out, Swellow!" Ash called out.

The Pokeball emitted a flash of white light which soon formed into the dark blue flying type, Swellow. Ash stretched out his right arm and motioned for Swellow to quickly land on top of it. The bird did so without hesitation.

"Sorry for not getting around to this earlier, Swellow, but I think now is a good time to see how well your wings have healed," he said, patting the bird on the head.

"Swe-llow," Swellow said happily.

"You're taking Swellow out for an early morning jog?" Max asked.

"Sure, I want to make sure Swellow has healed enough and that it feels natural flying again. With all the hectic stuff about the surfing competition, I never had time to do this until now. That's why I woke up early, I want to train with Swellow before May wakes up," he said.

Swellow flapped its wings and hovered slightly above Ash's arm. Pikachu jumped on the sand next to his feet as it got on all fours. Ash got himself in a running position, ready to head down the beach.

"I'm running too!" Max said, getting into position next to Ash.

"Alright everyone, when I say go, we all jog ahead to the other end of the beach, except for Swellow, who will be flying of course," Ash said, eyeing the bird.

"Swellow!" Swellow chirped.

"Ready?"

"Set…"

"GO!"

The two humans and Pokemon took off jogging next to one another down the fairly empty segment of the beach. Ash looked up at Swellow making sure that it was keeping up with them, and much to his delight the bird had no trouble flapping its wings and keeping in the same pace. Pikachu ran on all fours triumphantly as Max started trailing behind a bit.

"Hey that's no fair!" Max yelled, "You guys can all run faster than me!"

"Try to keep up the pace, Max!" Ash shouted back, "In a race it's all about speed, timing your movement and knowing when to turn without missing a beat."

"That sounds like you're talking about the surfing race!" Max shouted, struggling to keep up to the best of his ability.

Pikachu called out to Swellow in the air, and the bird slowly swooped over Pikachu's head cheerfully.

"I've learned a lot about what it takes to win a race with Corphish and Squirtle," Ash said between gasps, "I have to be in tip-top shape along with my Pokemon, as long as we're all focused on getting to that finish line first we'll have no problem!"

Ash sped up on the sand as the beach curved to the right. Pikachu and Swellow had no problem keeping up with their trainer, but Max struggled to run as fast as he could just to keep up.

"C'mon, slow down will ya!" Max panted, "I thought this was a jog and not a race!"

"Don't they both mean running as fast as you can?" Ash asked unsurely.

"Of course not!" Max yelled ahead, "Do you even know your vocabulary, Ash? Now slow down already and let me catch up!"

"Oh…ok," Ash said, slowing down before coming to a stop. His Pokemon stopped around him as well.

Max panted while hunching over with his hands on his legs, "…I….should….have…just stayed…in bed this morning…guh…."

Ash put his hands on his hips and smiled, "Aw c'mon, Max, your sister likes running and racing a lot. Yesterday she chased me all over the whole beach because I accidentally spilled ice cream on her lap."

Ash thought to himself looking up at the sky, It was vanilla ice cream too, all I remember her screaming about was how cold it was and how I did it on purpose. Good thing I managed to run away from her and hide until she calmed down…sheesh.

"That's because May has longer legs than I do!" Max said, finally catching his breath, "And besides that she's too energetic for her own good. I really think my Mom should put her on medication."

Ash, Swellow and Pikachu looked at him with stunned expressions.

"I'm KIDDING!" Max chuckled.

"Uh…right," Ash laughed while looking up at Swellow, "So, buddy, you did a great job soaring the skies and keeping up with us. For someone that broke your wings and lost a lot of blood, you did fantastic. I'm glad you're yourself again, Swellow."

Swellow formed a tiny ounce of water in its eyes as it swooped down into Ash's arms. The young boy hugged his Pokemon tightly while Max and Pikachu watched approvingly.

"Let's head back to the hotel, ok, Swellow?" he asked lovingly.

"Swellow! Swell-ow!" Swelled chirped happily.

~*~*~

"Only five more days, Brock!" May said happily, brushing her brown hair with a comb while looking in the mirror.

Brock was sitting on the edge of his bed, leaning over and tying his shoe laces. After he finished securing the knot he looked up at her and smiled.

"Only five more days, huh? I think I'll be able to manage…" he said. He then lowered his voice and muttered something under his breath, "And hopefully get lucky too."

Both Brock and May were wearing their regular clothes. May had just gotten out of the shower ten minutes ago, and was busy fixing her hair before she tied her red bandana on her head. While Brock's bathing suit was still in his drawer, May was already prepared for the upcoming day at the beach.
Since she knew she would be spending most of the afternoon surfing with Ash again, she decided to wear her bikini underneath her clothes instead of her underwear. It was easier to just strip down on the beach, rather than to scurry back to the hotel and change into a bikini.

"I'm so cute!" May squealed, giving herself a compliment staring in the mirror. She placed her comb aside and continued looking at herself with sparkling eyes, "I love being me!"

She pranced away from the mirror and strapped her yellow fanny pack around her waist.

"You're really cheerful today," Brock said, "I'm glad you were able to get over that incident down on the beach so quickly."

May put her left hand on her hip and bit her bottom lip, something she made a habit of doing when she was uncertain or uneasy about something.

"Its…its been a day ago since that happened. I don't really like to keep my mind on stuff like that, it makes me get depressed if I keep thinking about the bad stuff."

"Has Ash talked to you about it at all? I was quite shocked and angry when the two of you told me about those two scumbags who tried to steal your surfboard. I'm just wondering if you and Ash had a conversation about it in private," Brock asked.

May turned around, taking two steps toward the open window near the sink. She took a deep breath, and held her hands against her chest.

"We…talked about it a little bit…mostly when we had to tell everything that happened to Officer Jenny. We mostly tried to put it behind us though, Ash was more willing to move on than I was," May said. She hesitated a bit and then continued, "But no, we didn't talk about it at all after that or even yesterday."

Brock got up from the bed and walked toward her as she turned around. As her friend and the "big brother" of the group, he wanted to make sure that everything was alright.

"I envy you and Ash, you know that?" Brock said grinning.

"Why's that?" she asked.

"I've always wanted to remain positive and upbeat in hurtful times too, but I end up dwelling on the situation too much and getting myself into a rut. It happened to me all the time when my mother and father abandoned my family, forcing me to take care of my siblings all by myself," he said slowly, "I'm glad the two of you can move on so quickly and easily."

"Oh," she said, looking at the floor.

"Even though Ash isn't here at the moment, I really wanted to apologize to the two of you. I should have done it yesterday, but anyway I'm really sorry that I was too busy goofing off with Tana and Jamie when you needed me," Brock confessed, "I should have been down there on the beach with you. I could have stopped that whole fight from even happening, I would have certainly shown those people a thing or two had I been with you at the time."

"Thanks, Brock," May said with a smile, "We both know that if you were there you would have helped us, there's no doubt about it. I'm glad that Ash and I have a friend as great as you."

"Hey now, I was just saying, that's all," Brock said, trying to avoid any unwarranted praise, "I can see that you were able to take of yourselves though, and that's what counts."

May nodded sincerely.

"One thing though, do you still want to keep what happened a secret from Max?" he asked.

"Yes!" May uttered quickly, almost as soon as Brock said the last syllable. She was uptight with the idea of her brother knowing what happened, and she didn't want him to be worrying about her. She loved her brother too much to get him involved in the issue.

"Alright, I won't tell Max a thing," Brock said, noticing how uneasy she was.

"Yea, I just think it's best for Max to be in the dark about this. I don't want to upset him," she said.

Brock scratched his chin and went into a train of thought.

"Hmmm, maybe this time I'll spend the day with you and Ash," Brock said, "I know Tana and Jamie asked me to spend the day with them in the hot springs, but I feel kind of bad knowing what happened the last time I left you guys alone."

"Whoa…what?!" May exclaimed, "Did I just hear you correctly? Did I just hear, "The Brock," turn down a date with two attractive girls to spend the the whole day looking out for me and Ash instead? I think the universe is about to implode!"

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, even if it comes to letting two totally gorgeous girls get away," Brock sighed.

"Nonononoonononnonno!" a giddy May shouted, jumping right in front of him, "We'll be fine! You can't let your one lucky break get away from you…or wait…since there's two girls isn't that two lucky breaks?"

"Uhhhh…something like that."

"I think these girls really like you, Brock, you should spend as much time with them as possible!" she squealed.

"Really like me? They're all over me!" Brock exclaimed, "Yesterday I don't think I went a couple of seconds without one of them grabbing onto my arms."

May was quite enthusiastic about Brock finding love. She was always fascinated by the idea of love and romance herself, and knowing Brock's less than stellar love life in the past, or lack thereof, she really wanted to see him succeed for once.

"That's so awesome, Brock! You should really introduce Jamie and Tana to us," she said.

"Yeah, they know that I'm staying at the beach with my friends but I never really found a good opportunity to introduce you guys to them," Brock grinned, "In fact, they even offered me a bed to sleep on in their hotel room and spend the night with them, but I declined and said that I'm already staying at a room with my friends. I barely even got the words out! You don't know how much it took for me to control myself and not sleep with…errr…I mean sleep over with them in their room. That takes real willpower right there."

He began to sob almost humorously.

"Although part of me wishes I didn't turn down that offer!" he cried, wiping the sleeve of his arm over his eyes.

"Silly, Brock, sleepovers can be fun!" May said, not really understanding the concept that Brock was talking about.

"I'm sure those sleepovers can be fun, but you're not thinking about the same sleepovers that they were thinking about," Brock mumbled.

"Huh?" May asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh nothing, never mind that. If your parents knew what I was talking to you about they'd kill me, especially your father. Hoo boy, you're too young to be listening to this kind of stuff anyway," he said.

"Eh…I'm still not following you," she said confused.

"That's good!" Brock said quickly, "Time to change the subject, yes?"

"Ok…" she said disappointingly, "I just think those two girls seem really nice and caring."

She scratched her right arm shyly when Brock didn't answer right away. Her eyes began to wander around the room, she didn't know what else to say.

"You wanna see Ash, don't you?" he asked knowingly.

"Heh…yeah I do," May said as she smiled.

"I could tell, you seem to be a little impatient. You're spending a lot more time with Ash than usual."

"You…you noticed?"

"Well its become blatantly apparent, ever since you were turned into infants back when we first met Professor Latrommi. I'm sure you still feel that fondness toward him when you held him as an infant."

"I do," May blushed, "I've…always admired and liked Ash, but I dunno…now I just feel more attached to him for some reason?"

"Heh, how's about we start heading out and finding where Max and Ash are? We can talk on the way," he said.

Brock opened the hotel room door and motioned for her to walk outside with him. May and Brock walked on the catwalks of the hotel, heading toward the lobby.

She turned around and nodded politely to him, "Again, thanks for having this conversation with me, Brock. It means a lot."

"I can be useful from time to time. I'm not totally background material, you know," Brock joked.

"Tee hee, no not at all!" May giggled.

"One thing still bothers me about the people you ran into though, did you ever find out why Precita and her friends tried to pick fights with you?" he asked.

"They just like to make fun of me, probably because the first thing I did was accidentally step on Precita's bag when I walked into the club. Some people hold a grudge over such stupid things."

"Or maybe they're just rotten people to begin with."

"I just hope I don't bump into Precita and her boyfriend again for the next five days. I know they're going to be competing in the surfing competition, but I don't want to see her face before then."

"If I ever see those people, I'll make sure to give them a good piece of my mind. Hopefully they've learned their lesson after they got their friends arrested," Brock said, crossing his arms.

"Some people never learn, sadly," May sighed.

*~*~*~

The gang spent the rest of the day together relaxing on the shoreline of the beach. Brock made sure to keep a watchful eye on Ash, May and Max this time, somewhat miffed that he wasn't there to come to their aid last time. When they wanted to swim in the water after lunch, May stripped into her bikini right on the beach. Max and Ash got pretty nervous when they saw May talking off her shirt right in front of them, but they were relieved when she had her tight dark red top on underneath. She slipped off her skirt and shorts revealing the bottom of her bikini as well, and left her clothes on their towels and lounge chairs that they were resting on.

May noticed Ash and Max's shocked expressions as she walked past them, holding her hands behind her back.

"You two can stop staring now," May said slyly, looking back at them.

"I was more worried than anything," Max scoffed, "You can be totally unpredictable that I never know what's going on in your mind."

"Hey cool it, Max!" May scolded, "I'd have to be a little sick in the head if I were to let my little brother see me naked. For someone that's soooo smart you sure lack common sense."

"You're crazy! I didn't think you were actually going to change in front of us, I kind of figured you were wearing your bathing suit on underneath. It's still frustrating to see my sister start taking off her shirt in broad daylight out of nowhere!" Max retaliated.

May rolled her eyes. "It'll be a cold day in hell before I let anyone see me with no clothes on!" she said as she ran toward the waves.

I already did, Ash thought, remembering the time he walked in on her, when she was stepping out of the shower when he was just an infant back at the lab.

He continued staring at her reluctantly as she swam in the water trying not to be knocked over by the large waves.

"Whaddya say we all head in too?" Brock motioned, "We just gotta change back at the hotel."

"Pikachu pika!" Pikachu cheered, staying in the shallow water was more than enough to keep Pikachu content.

"I'll go in too, as long as my sister doesn't try to drown me again," Max sighed, "Uh….Ash?"

Ash didn't respond, he just continued watching her in the water.

"He-llooooooooo?" Max mocked, waving his hand in front of Ash's eyes.

"Eh? What is it, Max?" Ash asked, startled.

"We're going to go get changed! Maybe if you could pry your eyes away from my sister for a second you can come with us and get changed too!" Max said.

"Why do you and Brock keep saying things like that lately?!" Ash asked angrily, "I'm not looking at her anymore than I usually do, I was just thinking about something, that's all."

"Don't blame me from waking you up from a catatonic stare," Max said snootily, waving his finger.

"Fine," Ash said hastily, "C'mon, Pikachu, let's get going."

Pikachu jumped on his shoulder as he walked through the sand somewhat frustrated.

"You know I'm just playing games with you, right, Ash?" Max said apologetically, trying to catch up to him, "I don't really think you like looking at someone as icky as my sister!

Ash barely heard the boy as he was busy thinking. I wonder if she remembers, I still feel guilty about seeing her naked when I shouldn't have. She forgave me for it but still, now I'm thinking about this again, after so long too.

"Pika pika?" Pikachu asked, noticing that Ash was troubled.

"Nothing, Pikachu," Ash shook his head.

She also hasn't been completely honest with me about how she first met Precita and her friends. Something must have happened at that club to get them to hate her so much, but for some reason she doesn't want to talk about it, he thought, In any case, I'll look forward to practicing with her again later today, and hopefully get her to tell me the whole story. I don't want her to have to face her problems by herself and keep them all bottled up inside…

…she has me to listen to her and do anything for her. I hope she knows that.

*~*~*

"It's a pleasure meeting your friends, Brock," Tana said.

"I agree, I was hoping you would introduce us to them," Jamie added.

Ash, May, Max and Brock were dripping wet after swimming in the beach. Tana and Jamie had spotted Brock on the beach, and after some formal introductions, the two girls didn't hesitate to make conversation with the gang.

Brock was still taken back at how gorgeous the two women were. Tana had glowing red hair which went down to her shoulders, and a cute face that would brighten up even the stormiest of days. Her white bikini nearly drove him wild, seeing as how it resembled women's underwear more than a bathing suit. Jamie had long green hair down her back, she was the more assertive of the two girls, with a cheerful orange bikini that showed off her figure. Even after spending the last two days with them, Brock still couldn't decide which girl he liked more. They were both nice girls with fun, energetic attitudes, neither of them giving Brock a hard time. On the other hand, maybe choosing wasn't even an option, as the two girls have shown no resentment over both "sharing" him.

May and Tana manged to hit it off right away, especially since Tana revealed that she used to be a Pokemon Coordinator a few years ago. The girls sat on their legs on the towel that was spread out over the sand. May didn't hesitate to tell her past accomplishments in the numerous Contests and the Grand Festival that she had competed in. They ended up spending a good hour chatting away about techniques to use in Contests, as well as other subjects such as shopping and possible love interests.

Jamie on the other hand, spent more time getting to know Ash and Max. Brock had explained that Ash and May would be competing in the surfing competition in a few days, and that's why they were staying at the beach. Jamie found that amusing, since she and Tana had entered the same competition last year and came in the very last place. This year they thought it was best to just watch the competition instead of compete in it, especially since they heard rumors that the competition would have an extra "twist" to it this year. Ash took special note of this extra twist that the competition could have, especially since nothing was listed about it in the pamphlet they had.

As the day wore on, so did the tension. Pikachu, Brock, Max, Tana and Jamie watched from the sidelines as Ash and May practiced atop their surfboard with Corphish and Squirtle again. Only this time, it became apparent that Tana and Jamie were getting a bit restless and wanted to be alone with Brock again. Brock refused however, as he wanted to see how well Ash and May had improved, as well as be there in case Precita and Dan managed to show up. Brock realized that perhaps he was digging a hole that he couldn't crawl out of, but he considered his friendship with Ash and May to be far more important than his potential love life.

Corphish and Squirtle zigzagged through three large pillars, pulling the surfboard and their trainers along behind them. After they successfully made it through without hitting the pole, Ash told them to take a break and wade in the water a bit.

Ash, who was standing behind May on the surfboard and holding her around, motioned for her to look over in the direction of Brock and the others on the sand.

"Do you really think those two girls are as nice as they seem?" Ash asked, curiously.

"I think so, I spent nearly an hour chatting with Tana and she seems like a really awesome person," May said, turning toward Ash, "Do you suspect something?"

"I dunno," he said uncertainly, "Something just seems off about this whole thing. Two girls totally falling in love with Brock and willing to share him? That sounds pretty crazy to me."

"You don't know much about love, do you, Ash?" May joked.

"Like you would know?" he retaliated.

May rubbed her toe innocently on the bottom of the surfboard, "Love can strike in many different ways, I think I'm beginning to realize that now. I just think those two girls really like him, and I'm pretty happy for Brock y'know?"

"Maybe," he grunted, "This love stuff has always been so confusing."

"It is…" May said softly.

She reached out and held his hand tenderly. Ash smiled as the two continued to look over in the direction of Brock, Pikachu, Max and the girls.

"…it is," she repeated.

~*~*~

It was 9:30pm. The group were in their sleeping clothes, sitting on their beds in the hotel room. Brock once again turned down Tana and Jamie's offer to sleep over in their room, and decided it was best to stay in his own room with his friends again.

Ash and May had a brief talk about how she met Precita, and he was furious when she showed him the now light scrapes on the bottom of her arms. She said that Eliza was the one who tripped her, the blonde one who was taken away by the security guards two days ago. Ash put his hands on May's shoulders and promised her that he wouldn't let anything like this happen to her again.

"I'll make sure to take better care of myself next time too," she responded, "You're the best, Ash."

Suddenly, the video phone ringed in their room.

"Ring, ring ring, phone call! Phone call!" the electronic voice said on the green videophone.

"I wonder whose calling us," Max said sleepily as he opened the covers of his bed.

"I got it," Ash said, turning the dial on the videophone.

The monitor turned on to reveal Professor Latrommi through the transceiver. He was in his usual jovial manner, with his big nose taking up the majority of the video screen and his balding scalp filling up the rest.

"Professor!" Ash said surprised, "I didn't expect you to call us."

"I wanted to hear some progress on how you and the rest of the funky bunch were doing," Professor Latrommi chortled, "The surfing competition is in five days, I hope you kids have been practicing on the race course by now."

"We sure have, Professor!" May said exuberantly, pushing Ash aside so that her face was in front of the video phone, "Ash and I are the ones who are entering the race!"

Unknowingly, she had her hand pressed against Ash's cheek in which the boy struggled to move away quite humorously.

"You and the boy? Aha! That's splendid! Splendid indeed! Remember, I need that prize money to repay the debt in my lab," Latrommi replied, rubbing his bald dome.

"We're doing our best!" May said zestfully.

Ash finally managed to move her hand away and brought his face back in front of the monitor.

"Professor, did you ever get that new shipment of mechanical arms from Devon corp?" Ash asked.

"Why I most certainly did, they were shipped to me just yesterday in fact. They were a pain in the behind to install and program, but what the hey, at least now I don't have to do all that work by hand again. Of course, the money you win will reimburse me for having to buy that new pair of arms," Latrommi said.

"We heard you the first time, Professor," Ash laughed.

"Money, money, money. You don't let us forget about that stuff do you?" May giggled, "One-track mind, eh, Professor Latrommi?"

"Getting sassy I see? I'm just reminding you kids that you're the ones who destroyed the arms in the first place, and that I'm still waiting for the debt to be repaid," he said, "Now then, why don't you kids go back outside and start surfing again. You guys need to be perfect, ya hear?!"

"But it's 9:30 at night!" Ash frowned, "We were practicing all day, we're just about ready to fall asleep!

"Practice makes perfect my boy, besides, don't you have an extra incentive to surf for as many hours as possible?" Latrommi insinuated.

"Eh?" Ash grunted.

"You know, the girl sitting right next to you. Who wouldn't want to hold onto that all day?" Latrommi laughed.

"Hey!" May said irritated, "I could do without the comments, Professor!"

"Now, now, calm down. Just remember, only a few days left! So long kids, I'm hanging up," Latrommi said, turning off the video monitor.

"Goodbye, Professor," Ash said, walking away from the videophone.

~*~*~

The rest of the days on the beach went by quickly, and before they knew it, the day of the surfing competition had finally arrived!

A large stadium filled with hundreds of people surrounded the obstacle course, getting a good view of the action. There were also many stands and seats around the side of the beach, the staff made sure that there was enough places for everyone to sit. The crowd was bustling with excitement and cheer, everyone was getting ready for the race to start.

On the first row of seats that overlooked the course from the raised stadium above, Brock, Max, Pikachu, Tana and Jamie sat next to each other waiting to cheer on their friends during the race. They had what could be considered the best seats in the house, since they got a fantastic view of nearly the entire obstacle course. Max cheered happily as he was drinking his soda and eating pop corn. Brock was sharing a corn dog with Jamie, while Tana and Pikachu were each holding their own cotton candy cone.

The various staff members and announcers for the race were getting ready for the big event. A large loudspeaker was placed above all the stands, so everyone could hear the race commentary from the announcer and the judges.

The waves broke against the sand where over 30 different pairs of people stood next to their surfboards on the sand. Their various Pokemon were all out of their Pokeballs as well, however the rules dictated that the tethers could only be tied around the Pokemon until after the race starts. It was much more exciting to see the trainers scramble to tie the tethers around their Pokemon after the signal was fired, as the ones who secured the ropes around their Pokemon faster got a head start over others in the race.

Ash and May stood diligently next to their surfboard, with Corphish and Squirtle eager to put all their training to the test.

"The competition looks strong," Ash said, noticing the various evolved Water Pokemon the other trainers were using.

"No doubt about it, this is not going to be an easy race. Corphish, Squirtle, you guys are going to give it your all, right?" May asked enthusiastically.

"Cor-phish!" Corphish cheered.

"Squirtle!" Squirtle said, clinging to May's leg.

"Just don't get worried, Squirtle, you'll do just as good as those other Water Pokemon if you put your mind to it," May said, patting her Squirtle softly, "We've practiced for the last seven days for this moment, you can do it."

"Squirtle!" Squirtle said with confidence.

"Hey, May," Ash said, nudging her elbow.

"What is it?"

"Over there on the other side, I think I see Precita and Dan," Ash said with disapproval.

May squinted her eyes, peering over to where the other participants were standing.

"Yeah that's them," May said annoyed, "I'm so glad we didn't bump into them again till now."

Precita flicked her dark black hair in the wind and grinned as she eyed the competition. Dan was too busy groping her through her tight purple bikini to bother looking at what his opponents offered.

"Hands off, Dan," Precita said, pushing his hands off her breasts, "I wanna see if I can spot if that little girl is here."

"You mean May and that other kid, right? I'm sure they're here somewhere, probably on the other side," Dan said, looking at the other surfers.

"Pick up the surfboard, I don't want to start from this angle," Precita declared.

"What? Are you kidding me? If we start at this angle we'll have a clear advantage over the other surfers," he replied.

"Stop second guessing me and do as I say already, damnit!" Precita said angrily, "I don't want to start here. I want to start right next to May."

"Ah, I get it now. Wipe her out early on in the race and crush her dreams, eh?" Dan said, pulling on the tether of the surfboard.

"Not just that, I want to completely obliterate her," Precita said, "That girl quite frankly makes me sick. So naïve and trusting, I feel like ramming her into a wall. Her friend seems pathetic as well, it'll be satisfying to completely knock them overboard in the race."

"Hm, good call. Should we let our Pokemon out of their Pokeballs yet? All the other trainers have theirs out," Dan said.

"After we find where that brunette girl is," Precita said, still looking through the crowd, "I want to formally introduce our Pokemon to her. I want her to know which Pokemon will cause her a great deal of pain during the race, that way I can savior the moment afterwards."

"Sounds good."

"No, sounds exhilarating," Precita smirked, "I'm going to break her, and I'm going to enjoy it."