Rayquaza45: Hey there readers! I now return with a new chapter for you to read. It took a while, but I guess you'll like it. If you want faster updates though, remember to review more. But now, let's get on with it.
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon or any of its concepts.
Chapter 16: Difficult Acceptances
"A special guest?" Brock asked.
"That's what Tucker just announced on TV." Dawn pointed out. "He's gonna appear during the finals."
"Who is it?" Gary asked.
"Well they haven't mentioned that." Dawn said, rolling her big blue eyes. "If I knew, I'd tell you."
"And…I appreciate that." Gary said, desperately trying to cover the blush on his face.
"Well I know when I can't stick around." Brock thought to himself as he left the house.
At the Olivine City pokemon centre, Ash Ketchum was on the video phone with none other than Professor Samuel Oak of Pallet Town. Having entered the finals of the Battle Spirits Tournament, he now needed pokemon to fight. The electric rodent, Pikachu, on his shoulder smiled happily during the conversation.
"Well Ash, I must say, now that you're in the finals against Leaf you've already established yourself as an excellent trainer, but you still have a ways to go." The professor said.
"I understand, Professor Oak." Ash nodded. "That's why I wanna win this tournament."
"Very well then Ash." He responded. "Which pokemon are you sending back?"
"Totodile and Heracross." Ash told him. "And can you send Swellow in place?"
"Sure Ash, but you'll only have five pokemon then." The professor pointed out.
"Well that's not a problem." Ash smiled. "I'm gonna have that taken care of."
"Very well then." The professor smiled. "Please put the pokeballs on the transporter."
Taking the lure ball containing his Totodile and the pokeball containing his Heracross off his belt, Ash set the two on the pokeball transporter. Two of the six slots were now filled. A red zap of light later and both were gone as a single pokeball took the place of one while one remained empty. Ash took the ball and set it on his belt and turned to the professor.
"Professor, I got it on this end." Ash smiled.
"Okay Ash, your Totodile and Heracross are here with me now." The professor told him.
"And now I've gotta go, Professor." Ash said.
"Okay then." He said. "All the best in the final match, your mother and I will be watching the live broadcast."
"PikaPi?" The electric rodent on Ash's shoulder asked after the professor hung up and he turned off the video phone.
"We're gonna need to get ready for the finals." Ash told it. "But first, we'll need another of our old friends."
Ash then turned the video phone back on. In the background was what appeared to be very large cliffs as a figure with green hair appeared.
Back at Leaf's vacation house, Brendan had somehow managed to get inside May's room. The light-brown haired coordinator had been keeping to herself in her room for quite some time. Even Leaf had been unable to get her to come out of it.
"Whenever you're ready, we can talk." Brendan calmly told her as he sat next to her on the bed.
"I'm sorry." She finally said as she hunched over even more.
"You don't have anything to be sorry about." Brendan told her.
"I do!" May argued. "I said a bunch of things I shouldn't have said."
"Is this about what happened when I lost to Ash?" Brendan asked. "Gary told me you got into a catfight."
"I…" She just didn't know what to say? She'd insulted the boy who'd made her life what it was. Without Ash, she'd probably still be some girl who refused to acknowledge pokemon and just wanted to travel near and far, aimlessly. And Ash didn't even know that it'd happened, she believed.
"Ash will never hold a grudge if that's what you're thinking." Brendan told her.
Admittedly, she'd known Ash for a longer time, having traveled with him for over a year while Brendan had just known Ash for a matter of weeks. But even after the business with Leaf's and Ash's first date and Brendan taking Pikachu under Leaf's orders, Ash forgave him.
"I just can't get over all of what I said." May shuttered. "There was no real cause for it."
"Well start with this: let it go." Brendan told her.
"Let it go?" May asked.
"Ash won't ever hold anything against you, neither will Leaf." Brendan did his best to try and comfort her but he was, by his own admission in his head, bad at it. Still, he needed to look confident.
"You know Brendan, I don't get you." May laughed, for the first time that day.
"It's been a while since I saw you smile while joking about me." Brendan said, now smiling himself.
"I guess it's has been a while, hasn't it." May smiled. "Ever since the Wallace Cup, when I returned from the Sinnoh region."
(Goldenrod City, Johto Region)
(Several Months Ago)
In a backstage room of a contest hall located near the Goldenrod City Radio Tower, four people sat or stood at various positions in the room, engaged in a conversation. One of them was May, dressed in her green bandana and orange shirt and black shorts.
"What would you know about something like that?" May shouted.
"I know if you'd used Venusaur, you would've won easily!" A boy with green hair told her. He was dressed in light blue pants, a black shirt under a purple jacket.
"What do you care, Drew!" A lady with pink hair scolded him. She wore a brown outfit similar to a park ranger. She attempted to look tough but this didn't make the green haired boy back down. "You didn't even compete."
"What does it matter if I didn't compete?" The boy argued. "If I had I'd have won easily!"
"Yeah, and cried after out of sadness, no doubt." An effeminately-dressed man with purple hair proclaimed, eliciting laughter from the girls.
"Shut up, Harley!" Drew shouted. "Why don't you go back to the contest hall, I'm sure Robert and his Milotic are more than willing to kick your butt again!"
"But I'm sure he'd much prefer to beat you." Harley countered. "Right, Solidad?"
"Aargh, forget this!" Drew shouted as he stormed out of the room. "I don't need this now!"
The other three coordinators looked on, none of them bothered to stop him.
On the outside of the building the green haired coordinator, Drew, continued to walk away angrily. Down the streets of the high-tech Goldenrod City, big buildings and people all around, he continued to walk with his eyes stubbornly closed until he bumped into another boy wearing a white hat with a black bottom, red and black shoes, black pants with yellow stripes at the bottom and a red and black shirt with long sleeves.
"Watch where you're going, idiot." Drew shouted at the boy.
"What did you just call me?" The boy in the hat asked. "You better learn some manners, boy."
"And I suppose you wanna teach me the ways of the noob?" Drew retorted, stereotypically flipping his hair.
"Maybe." The boy responded, taking a pokeball out of his pocket.
Close to the entrance of Goldenrod City was a park. It had nice green grass and tall trees all around it where several children were playing with smaller pokemon such as Nidoran and Snubbul.
"Feel free to forfeit now if you want, idiot." Drew called out to the boy in the white hat.
"I was just gonna say the same to you!" The boy responded as he threw his pokeball into the air. The pokeball opened and released a red light which turned into a pokemon with leaves on its hands and its body covered in white hair.
"Shiftry!" The wicked pokemon shouted as it exited the pokeball.
"And the name's Brendan!" The boy in the white hat shouted as his pokemon got in its fighting stance.
"A Shiftry, huh." Drew thought as he took out another pokeball. "Go for it." He shouted as he threw it in the air.
"Roserade!" The bouquet pokemon shouted as it came out of its pokeball.
Back at the entrance of the contest hall, May was eagerly waiting for Drew to return, pacing up and down the street. Sure, there was no contest scheduled to take place but they couldn't exactly leave without him since they were traveling together. A while had passed since Drew stormed out and hadn't been heard from since. Solidad wondered where he was while Harley couldn't care less.
Finally, too much time had passed for May to take it easy and she left the area to go find Drew herself. She walked around the immediate area for a while, not knowing where he was and so not finding anything in the crowded areas she was in.
Eventually, she left the crowded part of the city and went the other way. She soon approached a park filled with kids and other small pokemon while wild Pidgey's flew overhead. She looked out further into the park and noticed a boy resembling Drew, battling with some other boy roughly the same age.
As May approached the two battlers, she noticed the occurrences. Drew's Roserade was being heavily bashed around by a Shiftry. Attack for attack, the bouquet pokemon was unable to match up to the strength of the wicked pokemon.
"Drew!" She called out.
"May?" Drew asked as he looked over, seeing the light brown haired coordinator calling out to him.
"Did he just say 'May'?" Brendan thought to himself as he looked over his shoulder. He noticed a girl, roughly the same age as himself, dressed in a green bandana, an orange shirt and black shorts. The exact same clothes he'd made for a girl several months ago back in the Hoenn region. Ash he turned around, the girl noticed him as well.
"Brendan!" She called out in surprise as she saw him turn around. He was the same boy who'd helped her fight a wild Steelix that had ambushed her and Professor Birch several months ago. But he mentioned that he was going to the Sinnoh region, what was he doing in Johto?
"May, you know this guy?" Drew asked her from afar. His Roserade had taken a serious beating while Brendan's Shiftry had sustained little injury so he was keen not to leave it.
"Well…yeah." She answered. What was she going to do if Drew found out about Brendan and her previous meeting?
"So how is it you know her, plant boy?" Brendan taunted him.
Drew didn't immediately answer, he just fumed for a moment and pointed his hand outwards. "Roserade, use magical leaf!"
"Ro…rose…err…ade!" The bouquet pokemon grunted as if struggled to get up. Finally managing to do so, it started spinning around and released several glowing leaves from the flowers on its hand. The leaves began spinning towards Shiftry at a quick speed.
"Shiftry, use aerial ace!" Brendan commanded.
"Shift…reeeee!" The wicked pokemon screeched as it covered its body in a white swirl and began flying towards its opponent. On the way there, it bashed through the magical leaf attack and approached its opponent as the leaves fell to the ground. With great force, Shiftry hit Roserade with intense force and knocked the bouquet pokemon to the ground far away.
"Roserade!" Drew shouted.
"Guess this means you lose, plant boy." Brendan snickered.
"Return." Drew said as he held out a pokeball and a red beam of light took his fallen pokemon inside. "You win this time, whitey. You'd better hope we don't meet again."
And with that, the green haired coordinator known as Drew took his leave towards the pokemon centre. As much as May wanted to go after him, something made her want to stay back. As she approached Brendan, he recalled and thanked his Shiftry and turned to face her.
"Brendan, what happened?" She asked him.
"He made me angry and we battled." It wasn't possible for him to be blunter than that. While he'd have normally hidden something, something about May's beautiful blue eyes pulled the truth from him in its most basic form. "How do you know him?"
"He's a pokemon coordinator like me; we've been traveling the Johto region to compete in pokemon contests." She told him. "But what are you doing here? You said you were going to the Sinnoh region."
"I did." He said. "The Battle Tower in the Sinnoh Region is under repairs after some dude showed up there with a Darkrai and a Latios and wrecked the place."
"That's too bad, but still, why are you here?" May asked once again.
"What's wrong, May?" Brendan sarcastically asked. "Not happy to see me?"
"Oh come on, Brendan." She said as she playfully pushed him. "You know I am."
"Well I just came to Goldenrod to take in the sights." He explained. "I've never actually been to the Johto or Kanto regions before."
"Well that's gonna change soon, whitey." May laughed, careful to let Brendan know that she was just joking about the name.
"It's just a hat." He countered, pulling the visible white off his head multiple times and revealing black hair underneath, clearly proving that it was, in fact, just a hat that he was wearing.
"Okay then, it's a hat." May laughed. "Let's just go and get something to eat, shall we?"
(Leaf's Vacation House, Olivine City)
(Present Day)
"That sure was a weird day." Brendan said. "What ever happened to that guy with the green hair?"
"Well he kept competing in pokemon contests." May told him. "And he's been pretty successful too."
"I guess losing to me really gave him a kick in the pants." Brendan laughed.
"Yeah…well there may have been someone else who kicked him in the pants." May added with the thought of a pink-haired coordinator in mind.
"Even still…you and I were together in the city for a while, weren't we?" Brendan asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, I guess." She said with a mild blush on her face.
"Well…here's to a longer time together." Brendan proclaimed, giving May a kiss on the cheek. But May didn't exactly want to stop there. As he pulled away, she moved closer to him, almost to the point of leaping off her bed and kissed him on the mouth.
"I'm gonna love this!" Brendan thought to himself as he continued his activity.
Back downstairs, Ash entered the house, having returned from the pokemon centre. He noticed Dawn, Gary and Brock sitting on the couches watching TV. Gary and Dawn say right next to each other while Brock sat on a different couch entirely. The three of them took their eyes off the TV as the finalist entered the room.
"Hey there, Ash." Dawn greeted him.
Surprisingly, there was no response.
"What's wrong Ash?" Brock asked.
"What's that in your hand?" Gary asked, noticing the raven haired trainer carrying something under his arm.
"It's…uhh…" He hesitated. "It's weird."
"Show us." Gary told him.
Ash immediately took the item out from under his arm, revealing a newspaper. He threw it onto the table in front of the three people on the couch. The three of them read the headline, and their entire body stopped moving for a minute. The front page featured a picture of Ash and a picture of Leaf on the front page separated by a pokeball. But the biggest shock was the headline:
Love Couple in the Finals
"What the!" Dawn shouted in surprise.
"That's…that's just…wow." Brock came out.
"What's so funny?" Ash asked the future pokemon researcher.
"It's…it's the actual ar…article you've gotta re...read." Gary struggled to say through his laughter.
"Actual article?" Ash asked as he began reading the rest of the paper.
An anonymous source has revealed that the two finalists of the Battle Spirits Tournament; Ash Ketchum and Leaf Green, are carrying on a romantic relationship. Both trainers are known to be the same age and are from Pallet Town, located in the Kanto region.
"What in the world!" Ash shouted.
All of a sudden, the back doors opened up. Leaf approached the four in the living room from the outside training field, having head all the commotion.
"Guys, what wrong?" She asked. "I can hear you from outside."
Gary immediately took the newspaper off the table and gave it to Leaf. Not wanting his girlfriend to see the headline, Ash immediately rushed her, hoping he could get the paper back.
"Who's the anonymous source?" Leaf asked.
"I don't know!" Ash exclaimed. "The only ones who knew anything were the five of us, May and Brendan."
"So are you saying it was one of us?" Gary asked.
"Well…you guys were the only ones who knew." Ash shrugged.
"Well…that's not exactly true." Leaf told him.
"What?" Ash asked.
"Someone else knows about you guys?" Gary asked.
"Yeah, back at the lighthouse, we ran into the gym leader Jasmine and the former Hoenn champion, Steven Stone." Leaf told him. "They know too."
"I'm sorry, but did you just say Steven Stone and Jasmine were at the lighthouse…and they saw you two…and they were…together?" Brock asked, hoping that the answer would be favorable for him.
"Yeah." Leaf said, not knowing the implications of her answer.
Nobody spoke for a few moments as Brock reflected on what he had just heard. Jasmine, the girl who'd earlier turned him down, was dating the son of a wealthy businessman and the former champion of the Hoenn region. How could he compete with that?
"Uhh…Brock?" Ash asked.
"It's nothing, Ash." Brock assured him. "I'm gonna go upstairs."
"Brock?" With that, the rock-type gym leader of Pewter City left the living room and proceeded to his bedroom upstairs. While Leaf had obviously not known what she'd done, Ash sure did.
"Hey, so do you think they leaked it?" Dawn asked, trying to distract everyone so Brock could leave unnoticed from therein.
"Steven and Jasmine?" Ash reviewed. "Nah, I can't imagine them doing something like this."
"Well whoever did leak it, they also gave the readers a question to answer." Leaf said as she pointed to the bottom of the article.
Will the two lovers be able to put their feelings side for the final battle, or will they let their hormones get to them?
"What kind of question is that!" Ash shouted aloud, hurting everyone's ears.
"It's almost a reasonable question." Gary suggested. "Can you guys put your feelings aside?"
Both trainers looked at each other and turned back to Gary. "Yeah." "Yes."
"Seriously?" Gary was confused. "You don't even need to think about it?"
"What there to think about?" Ash asked. "I never let my personal feelings get to me during a pokemon battle."
"Ash and I are the same way in that regard." Leaf stated. "I'm not gonna go easy on him. I'm here to win it all."
"So am I!" Ash exclaimed.
"Guess that settles that." Dawn proclaimed. "Who's hungry?"
Nothing settles your thirst quite like a bottle of lemonade. As to Ash, nothing settles him like a huge lunch. After eating as much as they could, Dawn and Gary retreated to the upstairs attic for what they claimed to be research, when they really just wanted to see if there was anymore embarrassing stuff in there about Ash and Leaf. If someone gave anonymous tips to the paper, they probably wanted more.
On the outside training field, Ash and Pikachu sat on the stairs leading to the ground, staring up at the sky.
"I gave the right address." Ash stated. "He ought to get here soon."
"Pika." The electric rodent acknowledged.
As if on queue, Brendan and May exited the house. Ash and Pikachu turned around and noticed that the two of them were smiling at one another happily as Brendan had his hand on May's shoulder.
"Hey, guys." Ash welcomed them.
"Hi Ash." Brendan responded. "What're you doing out here?"
"I'm just waiting for an old friend." Ash smiled as he turned around and looked up at the sky.
"He's…coming in by air?" May asked.
"Kinda." Ash laughed. "So, Brendan what pokemon are you gonna use against Gary the day after tomorrow?"
"I was leaning towards Aggron, but I'm still not sure." He told him. "What do you think?"
"Even Gary doesn't know who he's gonna use." Ash told him. "Choose the pokemon you think can get the job done."
"That's just the tip of the ice berg." Brendan yawned.
"So…Ash…" May started. "How are you gonna go up against Leaf?"
"I'm not sure." Ash said. "I kinda thought I could just go out there and do what I've been doing." He said, resulting in May and Brendan sweatdropping.
"Come on!" Brendan exclaimed. "Leaf's way too strong for you to try that!"
"You saw what she did to Gary." May shouted. "You wanna let her do that to you too and lose the tournament?"
"Well I…uh…"
"Just keep working harder and harder." May advised him. "And you have a chance."
(The next day)
Ash waited for several hours for his friend to show up, but he never did. Upon inquiry, it seemed logical to assume that he got lost in the mountains and was still trying to get to Ash. Since he never showed up, Ash spent a great deal of time waiting with Pikachu by his side doing nothing but discuss their final battle.
Brendan and May went into the city for some reason known only to them and went to the pokemon centre afterwards so Brendan could make a final decision about which pokemon to use against Gary. Speaking of the future researcher, he also made his decision about his pokemon and was ready to face Brendan in the third place battle.
Leaf, meanwhile, was almost a ghost. Having heard very little from her after the newspaper incident, Ash just figured she went elsewhere to train and such, or to the pokemon centre to heal her pokemon.
Brock, on the other hand, was present all day. Cooking surprisingly large and unnecessary meals, cleaning the house and even the outside training field, he kept himself busy. Dawn suggested that it was his new way of dealing with the realization that Jasmine was dating Steven Stone.
In the living room inside Leaf's vacation house, Dawn and Gary sat on the couch watching the repeat broadcast of Leaf's battle against Gary.
(TV)
"Look out!" Gary shouted.
"Saurrrrrrr!" The seed pokemon shouted as it brought several thorn-covered-roots out of the ground and sent them at Electivire. Venusaur had once again used frenzy plant, the ultimate grass-type attack. The roots took Electivire by surprise, scooping it off the ground and hitting it again and again in the air, tossing it around and hurting it even worse that it had already been.
"Elect." The thunderbolt pokemon said as it dropped onto the ground, not moving an inch. From the cameras displayed around the field, it was clear what the outcome was.
"Electivire is no longer able to battle and so the red trainer is out of pokemon!" Tucker declared. "The victory goes to the green trainer, Leaf Green!"
Leaf and her Venusaur looked up and around at the cheering audience upon Tuckers announcement. The entire crowd was cheering for her impressive victory over Gary as Venusaur walked back over to its trainer who thanked it for its hard work and returned it to its pokeball. Gary sadly looked over at his defeat pokemon which he called back as well.
(Reality)
"I still can't believe how that battle went." Dawn ranted in awe as her eyes were glued to the TV. "And now Ash is in the finals!"
"Yeah…he is." Gary sadly acknowledged. As happy as he was for Ash, he couldn't help but feel disappointed at the fast that he lost his battle against Leaf. Though he could battle Brendan for third place, he would not get the chance to battle Ash.
"Are you alright, Gary?" Dawn asked, putting her hand on his knee.
"…Yeah. I'm fine." He decided, putting his hand on hers upon his knee.
Outside, on the training field, Ash and Pikachu strayed from their usual method of training to work on physical power. Both trainer and pokemon worked out side by side, doing push-ups on the ground.
"Eighteen….nineteen….twenty!" Ash counted as he and his partner went up and down, grunting with each addition.
"Pi…pi…pika!" The electric rodent exclaimed after it finished.
"Well…we may be great at running…Pikachu…" Ash panted. "But we need to…work on these push-ups."
"Pi." The electric rodent nodded in agreement.
Back on the inside, a tall individual in an apron was at the kitchen stove, cooking what appeared to be 3 meals simultaneously by himself. He comically hummed a tune that would get on anybody's nerves as he flipped two pans of frying onions and eggs.
"And this is how it goes!" He exclaimed aloud as he flipped a burger out of its pan and caught it in the air and put it back.
"Brock, stop singing!" A loud voice shouted from the living room.
"Not happening, Gary!" Brock shouted back as he continued to fry the burger.
Back in the living room, Dawn and Gary were still watching TV while Brendan and May entered the house from the front door. The two of them were smiling at one another in a way that made even Dawn and Gary's questionable activities look normal.
"Hey, guys." Gary welcomed them. "Where were you?"
"In the forest…then the docks outside the forest." Brendan said as he turned to May and then turned back to them. "Where we met some interesting people."
(Olivine City Forest)
(Several Hours Ago)
"Man this forest is huge." Brendan said in awe as he looked up at the trees around him and the sunlight shining through the leaves, giving them a green glow almost like CGI.
"Come on Brendan." May said, playfully pushing him from behind. "We'll never find a pearl in the trees."
"How do you know there're even pearls here?" Brendan asked.
"Because it's in the Olivine City guide book." May smiled. "People have been known to find small pearls in the city."
"So then why are we in the forest looking for crystal-clear pearls?" Brendan asked as if it were the most obvious question in the world.
May couldn't answer immediately since pearls weren't her actual reason for entering the forest with her boyfriend. Now she had to think of something to tell him before he began to think that she was stupid.
"Well…I-" May started before she was cut off.
"Help!" A voice called out from the distance. May and Brendan immediately began turning their head, looking for the source of the voice.
"Who was that?" Brendan asked as he turned back to May, unable to find the voice.
"Can we get some help over here!" The same voice called out.
"It came from the east!" May exclaimed as she ran off with Brendan following her behind.
Both May and Brendan soon exited the forest and saw the sun shining brightly on them, blinding them slightly. They got used to it soon as they were some figures standing at the edge of the coast on wooden docks facing the ocean with something staring down at them.
"Hey!" A boy in a turquoise half-sleeved shirt and olive jeans called out to the approaching Hoenn region trainers.
He and another boy wearing a yellow and black hat, a red sweater and black knickers with a watched strapped to his wrist were facing down a Tentacruel in the water which appeared to be far larger than a normal-sized Tentacruel. In front of the boys lay a fainted Typhlosion and a fainted Meganium. Seeing the sight, Brendan immediately took out a pokeball and threw it into the air as he ran towards the boys.
"Go get 'em!" He shouted as the light that came out of his pokeball revealed his Swampert, which charged in front of the two boys with a roar.
"What happened?" May asked the two boys as Brendan's Swampert faced down the giant Tentacruel.
"This Tentacruel attacked us for no reason!" The boy in the turquoise shirt exclaimed.
The boy was rightfully surprised. Wild pokemon attacking random people, let alone trainers, was somewhat rare and the fact that it had even defeated their pokemon was cause for concern.
"Alright then, get back." May told them as she took out her own pokeball and released the pokemon inside.
"Saur!" A large green pokemon with a flower on its back bellowed upon exit from the catching device. Venusaur lumbered on over towards Swampert while the two boys recalled their pokemon into their pokeballs and ran behind the pokemon and stood next to May and Brendan.
"Swampert, ice beam!" Brendan shouted.
"Swamperrrrrrrrrt!" The mud fish pokemon shouted as it created a large blue ball in front of its mouth and fired it at the giant pokemon, spraying it in its large red crystal sphere and knocking it back into the water.
"Venusaur, get in position!" May told it.
"Saur." The seed pokemon bellowed as it lowered its head and braced its legs.
With a large splash of water, the giant Tentacruel returned to the surface with a vengeance, covering the entire area with water and knocking back Swampert with one of its tentacles.
"Man, this thing is tough." Brendan thought to himself. "Taking an ice beam and hardly feeling it."
"Venusaur, use razor leaf, now!" May commanded.
"Veeenuuu…saurrr!" The seed pokemon shouted as it fired dozens of razor sharp leaves at its opponents face. The leaves hit it directly and sent it reeling back through the water, the pressure on both sides creating small waves as it was pushed back.
"You got it!" The boy in the turquoise shirt cheered.
"I'm not so sure about that." The boy in the black and yellow hat thought as he saw more water coming towards them.
All of a sudden, the Tentacruel appeared once more. It was now angrier than ever, it began thrashing around in the water, smashing its tentacles into Swampert and Venusaur repeatedly. The four trainers could only watch as the two pokemon were taking a beating from an enemy that seemed immune to all their attacks.
"I can't believe this." May thought to herself. "What can we do?"
"May." Brendan calmly called to her.
"Brendan?"
"This is just like before." He said. "Let's work together."
"Before?"
"Before." He repeated. "With the Steelix back in the Hoenn region. When we first met."
"So…we need to work together?"
"That's right." He nodded. "Use our best attacks."
"Venusaur, charge a solar beam!" May commanded.
"Cruuuuuel!" The jellyfish pokemon screeched as it thrashed around in the water, sending waves of water into the air and splashing the trainers.
"Swampert, hydro cannon!" Brendan commanded.
"Swamperrrrrrrt!" The mud fish pokemon bellowed as it fired a massive burst stream of water from its mouth at the jellyfish pokemon. The ultimate water-type attack hit Tentacruel right in the chest and powered through with unbelievable strength as Venusaur continued to charge energy.
"Venusaur, now!" May called out.
"Sauuuuuuuuuuur!" The seed pokemon shouted as it fired a ray of light-yellow energy at the jellyfish pokemon. The powerful grass-type attack scored a direct hit and worked together with the hydro cannon to bring down the giant pokemon.
"Keep going, Swampert!" Brendan cheered.
"Venusaur!" May called out.
Behind the two of them, the boys in the turquoise shirt and red sweater had their eyes fixed on the display of power being shown. While both their pokemon were knocked out, these two managed to put up an amazing fight.
"I guess this is how they got so far into the tournament." The boy in the red sweater thought.
From nowhere, another ray of light-yellow energy flew over everyone's heads and hit the giant Tentacruel. Along with Venusaur's solar beam and Swampert's hydro cannon, the three attacks overpowered the jellyfish pokemon and sent it crashing below, sending the biggest waves yet into the air and drenching the trainers and their pokemon.
"We won!" May cheered as there was no sign of the jellyfish pokemon returning this time. The three attacks had done their job. The brown haired coordinator began jumping for joy as she took a quick leap in the air towards Brendan and hugged him full-on.
"Uhh…May?" Brendan asked from May's choke-like hug.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Behind you." He answered simply.
May released her boyfriend from her hug and turned around, noticing the two boys smirking at her display. She turned around and began blushing before she turned around quickly in curiosity. She noticed that a girl with blue hair was now standing with the boys. She wore black and pink shorts, a pink shirt under a white jacket and a blue hat. May and Brendan recognized her immediately as Marina, the coordinator who was beaten by Leaf in the quarter finals of the Battle Spirits Tournament.
"Marina, was that second solar beam yours?" The boy in the red sweater asked.
"It was one of my pokemon." She said as she comically smacked him in the head. "I go away for just fifteen minutes and you two get involved in all kinds of trouble!"
"Come on, Marina, it wasn't that bad." The boy tried to assure her as he rubbed his throbbing head.
"Only because Brendan and May showed up at the last second and saved your butts!" She exclaimed without hitting him.
"You know our names?" May asked.
"Of course, Brendan made it to the semifinals and he's going up against Gary Oak for third place." Marina recited.
"Well…you know." Brendan smiled as he put his hand behind his head.
"And you battled Gary Oak right after I was knocked out." Marina told the brown haired coordinator.
"Yeah and then he knocked me out." May sarcastically laughed. Being reminded of the loss was still a little painful.
"Well I wouldn't put much into the loss; you still had brains during the fight." She said as she turned to the boy in the turquoise shirt and stared into his eyes. "Unlike you!"
"Come on!" He pathetically pleaded. "Jimmy and I tried to fight-"
"You should've just escaped!" She shouted. "Jackson Vincent, I'm so disappointed in you."
"Wow. Full name." The boy in the red sweater, Jimmy, thought to himself.
"Come on, now." Brendan said, getting between Marina and Jackson. "He just tried to defend himself."
"His 'defense' nearly destroyed these docks." Marina argued. "He needs to learn some real responsibility."
"And I suppose you're the one to teach it?" Jimmy thought to himself.
(Leaf's Vacation House)
(Several Hours Later)
"So what happened to them after that?" Dawn asked.
"She took both of them under her arms and dragged them away." May laughed. "…She's surprisingly strong."
"That's one strange morning." Gary added.
"Speaking of mornings, what happened to Ash's friend?" Brendan asked. "Wasn't he supposed to be here?"
"He hasn't shown up yet." Gary told him.
Meanwhile, on the outside training field, Ash's Infernape was engaged in a sparring match against Pikachu in an attempt to improve Pikachu's speed and Infernape's accuracy. The flame pokemon threw several light punches against its much smaller opponent but was unable to land a hit against Pikachu, who kept dodging.
"Keep it up, guys!" Ash cheered from the side.
At that, Leaf exited the back of the house and came down the stairs to see Ash. He was unaware that she was coming up behind him and he was too focused on the pokemon. As she got closer and closer, she raised her arms higher and when she finally caught up to him, she covered his eyes with her hands and she stood behind him.
"Waaagh!" Ash screamed in agony as he was blinded. He couldn't see a thing and began shaking violently and Leaf wondered what he was doing. Was he playing along or did he think someone was after him.
"Ash! Ash! It's just me!" She called out as she put her hands up and let go of Ash.
"Wha…Leaf?" Ash asked as he turned around and noticed his girl smiling with he hands in the air, almost as if she were pretending to be under arrest. Pikachu and Infernape looked on in confusion as well.
"Just joking." She said while wearing her heart-melting smile. How could any guy stay mad at her for long?
"So where were you?" Ash asked. "We haven't seen you since yesterday."
"I was practicing for that stunt Tucker mentioned." She told him. "You should get working on yours too."
"Well my friend hasn't arrived yet." Ash explained. "When he's here…that's when I can start."
"Fair enough." She shrugged. "I'll see you later."
"Where are you going?" Ash asked her as she turned around to leave.
"Attending to some business." She told him as she turned back around and walked off as Ash and his pokemon looked on.
Much later that day, after Ash had trained with the five pokemon he currently had on hand, Pikachu, Infernape, Torterra, Sceptile and Swellow, he and Pikachu alone sat on the back steps of Leaf's vacation house late in the night, waiting for their friend to show up after everyone else, except possibly Dawn and Gary, had gone to bed.
"When he gets here, he's gonna be a huge help to us against the pokemon Leaf's gonna use." Ash told his partner. "We're gonna start training even harder and he's gonna help us with our stunt."
"Pika!" The electric rodent cheered.
All of a sudden, from high above the house, Ash heard a very lour roar as he and Pikachu looked up and saw was appeared to be moving embers in the sky which were accompanied by a loud roar.
"Pikachu!" The electric rodent shouted as it quickly got up and stared into the sky.
"Well…he's finally here." Ash said to himself as he got up. "I was beginning to think he got lost again."
Rayquaza45: Guess it's not too hard to guess who got lost in the mountains and found his way to Ash. I know you guys will love it.
It was kinda difficult to write this chapter since I'm not too good with personalities of Drew and Harley but I managed to pull through. And now we get closer and closer to the end.
Next time: Chapter 17: Before The Night Is Through. Brendan and Gary's third place match begins. Will the hoenn region trainer pull out a victory or will the future researcher claim it? And how are Ash and Leaf going to battle one another? And who the hell leaked the information about them to the papers?
Till next time!