Notes: Just a short chapter this time. These are mostly just drabbles that I was doing to get a feel for the series.
~.~.~
#3 Rayquaza and #4 Deoxys
But, hey, weird things happen. Sometimes you... accidentally (kinda) catch a legendary Pokemon. May would have been fine — more than fine — with just the one. The two. But Latias didn't count, really.
(...In retrospect, having to make excuses like that was already a sign.)
Rayquaza? All Zinnia's fault. And while they were at it, so was Deoxys, because one followed the other.
~.~.~
"Really?" May asked, dubiously at Zinnia, then back toward Rayquaza. "Is this really the time for that? We kind of have a meteorite to stop."
"Rayquaza want to see your power," Zinnia confirmed, nodding. "Use everything you've got and win it over!"
"Why don't you do it?" May demanded. "You're the dragon-type trainer here!"
Not to mention the Draconid clan's Lorekeeper, with a special connection to Rayquaza in particular. In fact, she was the one who had summoned Rayquaza to begin with, so wasn't Zinnia obviously the better candidate for this?
May's only accomplishment in this whole thing was carrying around a whole lot of junk in her pack, including some magic rock — she didn't even remember where she got it from, at this point. (Probably from Steven, going by statistics. She got a lot of rocks from him. Quite a few had mystic powers of some sort.)
Smiling far too calmly and knowingly, Zinnia shook her head. "No, May. You're the one who stopped Kyogre's rampage and saved Hoenn."
Rampage was far too strong a word, in May's opinion. All that overgrown Wooper wanted, she had found out, was to find some deep pool of water to nap in. Frankly, she wasn't too sure Kyogre would have ever gotten around to actually leaving Cave of Origins, which seemed to be roughly its perfect location — dark, wet, and empty of other lifeforms to bother it.
"You're Hoenn's hero, May! It's only right that you should save our land again!" Zinnia went on, smiling and nodding to herself. She sounded awfully passionate, May noted.
...A closet romantic. Wonderful. That... actually explained a lot.
"You know what happened to Kyogre," May shot back. Crossing her arms, she raised an eyebrow in challenge. "Maybe I'll catch Rayquaza too."
Zinnia laughed — like the great protector of the region that her clan worshipped being stuffed into a Poke Ball was totally okay. "If Rayquaza allows itself to be caught, then I suppose it's fate," she said.
Well. May had to do it after that. Her dad didn't raise her to back down (unfortunately, despite his best efforts).
~.~.~
To add insult to injury, Zinnia and her overpowered dragon team completely trashed May afterwards — proving she was more than capable of taking on Rayquaza herself. But, you know, that wouldn't be fitting enough or something.
~.~.~
Still, after coming back from space — and there was a thing she wanted to pretend never happened; space, really? — May felt that perhaps, just maybe, carrying around a being capable of destroying extinction-level meteorites in her pocket was perhaps not the best, most respectful choice. Also, kinda worrying, since what if there were more meteorites that needed to be destroyed, but May didn't hear about it in time to let Rayquaza go?
Or, at the very least, she didn't feel comfortable leaving Rayquaza in a PC Box, and she wanted that sixth party slot back.
The plan was to return to the summit of Sky Pillar and release Rayquaza there. If she had to beat it unconscious and ditch it, then so be it, May was prepared for that. Hopefully. Unless Rayquaza blew her up like a meteorite. That was also a possibility May remained uncomfortably aware of.
...Except that the top of Sky Pillar was already occupied.
May stared at Deoxys. Deoxys stared at May — apparently with no lasting damage from getting blow up in space.
"Okay," May decided. "I guess that's just how it is."
~.~.~
Rayquaza did not get released. May lost another team spot to an alien.
At that point, catching all the other legendary Pokemon seemed like the only option left. If you can beat them, make them join you, or something.
~.~.~
