"Welcome to the team, Maria!" I smiled as I looked down at the newest addition to my team, a Lotad. She'd jumped out at us almost the moment we left the town, but Bonnie was more than a match for her. May said that she though she only knew astonish at the moment, so she'd be a bit useless against normal-type Pokémon.
"Jeez, do you plan on catching every Pokémon you see, Spencer? You could at least wait until we find some rarer Pokémon before spending all your money on Poké Balls."
"Hey, just because you've seen them all a million times doesn't mean I have; they're all a bit new and exciting to me." I didn't tell her the real reason, of course. There was no need to worry her if there was even a slight chance of me getting through my challenge without the curse ever being a problem.
"Hey, whatever you want," she shrugged. "But we're not exactly made of money, and you're team's nearly full already. You're either going to run out of spaces in your team and your new captures will go to waste, or you'll run out of money for new balls. Either way, you'll slow down eventually."
"I've got it all under control, May, don't worry." She grabbed my hand and dragged me along as she started walking.
"Whatever. C'mon, we've got to keep going if we want to get to Petalburg by noon." I sighed and pulled my hand out of hers and walked along with her, my legs still sore from yesterday. We traveled in relative quiet, but it thankfully wasn't that long until we reached our destination. "It's been a while since I've been here, but I should still be able to find the gym," May said quietly to herself, obviously lost in thought.
"May, don't you think we should get some lunch, first? I mean, we're not even going to battle Dad." May jumped a bit as I jarred her from her thoughts, but she nodded and marched off into the city to find a restaurant. I followed behind, taking the time to look around. Petalburg seemed like a nice little city, there were quite a few people, but there was enough space that most people had at least small yards at their houses. After lunch, May kept looking around for the gym, almost in a daze.
"May, do you actually know where the gym is?" I asked after half an hour of walking around. May responded by smacking me on the back of my head.
"Of course I do, Spencer, don't be ridiculous."
"Well, May, you've been leading me around in circles for the past 30 minutes, what else am I supposed to think?" May rolled her eyes.
"Obviously that I'm trying to help you get in shape, Spencer. I know the gym is around here somewhere..."
"Looking for the gym?" a voice behind us asked. I didn't need to turn around to tell who it was, but May simply didn't feel the need to know who had asked.
"Yeah, but we can find it ourselves, thanks" she said, waving dismissively behind her.
"She has no clue, Dad, don't listen to her," I said turning to face my father.
"Of course she doesn't, she's Birch's daughter," he laughed. May turned to face him as well, crossing her arms and blushing slightly.
"Well now we can find the gym," she said, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, you weren't hoping to battle me, were you?" He looked over my team and Pepper, and shook his head. "No, certainly not ready."
"No, I just wanted to make sure that you knew I was still alive. We planned on going through the forest to Rustboro."
"Ah, that's a much better choice. Roxanne is a good first leader for trainers just starting out to battle." He looked again at my team, as if he was taking inventory so far. "So, no accidents so far?"
"Maybe if you count how much trouble catching his Wingull was," May laughed.
"Ah, that's good," Dad smiled before looking sternly at me. "Does she know yet?"
"Know what?" May stopped laughing and looked fairly concerned. I glared at Dad and shook my head slightly.
"About our family's history of seducing the women we travel with of course," he smirked, not missing a beat. May frowned a bit, but shrugged, satisfied.
"I guess she knows now," I muttered, blushing and looking down at my feet. Couldn't he have thought up a better cover?
"Well, sir, I don't intend to be seduced by your son, so I don't think it's going to be a problem."
"They've all said that, Ms. Birch. Just ask my wife!" Dad laughed again, before looking at his watch. "Alright, you crazy kids, I've got to get back to the gym." He pulled me a bit to the side and whispered quietly to me, "You can't keep the secret forever, Spencer. She's going to find out at some point, whether or not you tell her." He smiled again and let me go back to May, who was looking worried again. "I told him to use protection," Dad laughed.
"Right... it was... nice meeting you, sir," May said, a bit unsure of how she felt about my Dad.
"You too, May. And one last bit of advice; make sure you keep training while you're traveling. you've got to keep improving if you want to be a major mover in the league!" With that, Dad walked to the gym... which was right down the street from where we were standing. I glared at May, but she just smiled.
"You dad seems like a fun guy to live with. A bit weird, maybe, but fun. Now c'mon, let's get going! We need to make some progress if we want to make it through Petalburg Woods in any reasonable amount of time!" I sighed and followed behind May as she led us from the city. I had the feeling that she was going to kill me eventually if she kept up this rapid traveling pace. The route to the forest was relatively short, but it was along a steep cliff that, through a narrow path along the edge, ran along a small beach and the ocean.
"Hey May, I thought you said that lake back near Oldale was pretty far inland?" May looked out at the ocean, actually stopping for a moment, and shrugged.
"I was never that good a geography."
"So you're the one in charge of navigation?"
"Hey, I'd like to see you do better. You've been in the region for what, two days?" I sighed and looked at the forest in front of us, when Maria cried out. I looked over at her, and saw her sitting, watching a Wurmple who had just crawled out of the trees between the city and the forest proper. I walked over, with Baron, Trent, and Bonnie following me, and the worm-like Pokémon curled up into a ball.
"Wurrr..." I looked down at the poor creature, obviously scared.
"Aww, don't worry, I won't bite." The Wurmple didn't budge, even when I nudged it lightly. "Well, this is no place for somebody like you," I said as I pulled out a Poké Ball. "Welcome to the team, Jessica." I tapped the ball lightly against the Wurmple, and she was a member of the team. I let her out of the ball, but she backed up against the tree line again. "Well, I hope you warm up to us eventually," I sighed.
"Excuse me, mister." I turned away from my new teammate to find a young boy with green hair standing there. He was pale, and couldn't have been older than 10. "I just saw you catch that Wurmple, and I was wondering if you could help me catch a Pokémon too."
"Why don't you just register with the Pokémon League?" May asked. "The starter you'll get will likely be better for a beginner like you than anything you could find here."
"I could, miss, but I don't want to battle the gym leaders. I'm moving to Verdanturf and I just want to have a friend."
"I'm not really an expert or anything," I started to say, before being interrupted by the kid coughing. I hated to judge based on how he looked, but he was obviously a pretty sick kid, and it wouldn't really be that much trouble. "But... I'd be glad to help. The name's Spencer."
"Thanks so much, Mister Spencer! I'm Wally!" The kid's smile was infectious, even as he coughed again.
"First thing's first, do you know how to battle, Wally?" He nodded. "Good. Maria, could you come here and help Wally catch a Pokémon?" Maria, who had been talking to Jessica, walked cheerily over. I pulled out a Poké Ball and handed it to Wally. "Alright, now let's start looking."
"Letting me use your Pokémon and a Poké Ball? You're too nice, Mister!"
"I guess I'll just sit down and rest over here," May said, rolling her eyes and laying down on the grass.
"Nah, it's the least I could do to help," I said, ignoring her. "Let's start looking around, then, I'm sure you need to get home and get ready."
"Alright!" Wally bounded off to look around, much faster than he seemed capable of, with Maria following steadily behind him. While we searched for a Pokémon for Wally, he shared details about himself, mostly about his illness and why he was moving. "Well my parents picked Verdanturf because that's where my Uncle lives, so I'll have family to live with. That, and the air's supposed to be really really clean, which is what I need."
"Your parents aren't moving with you?"
"No, they don't have enough money to move completely... but that's okay, I really appreciate that they want me to get better!" I smiled, because Wally was just such a cheery kid. He didn't stop searching for a Pokémon for anything, except once when he started coughing particularly badly, but he got right back to searching almost immediately. Finally, after about 20 minutes of searching, Wally pointed to the trees, and the Pokémon that had just stepped out from them. "Look! Look! It's a Ralts!"
"Ooh, they're pretty rare!" May, who'd actually been sleeping before, had sat up almost immediately and was looking intently at the small, green-capped Pokémon.
"Alright, Ralts, are you ready to battle?" Wally took up a stance as if he was going to fight the Ralts himself, and the Ralts copied his stance. "Maria, use... uh, use astonish?" Maria, who'd been by Wally's side faithfully throughout all the searching, jumped out at the Ralts and landed right in front of it.
"Lo!" There was a small burst of energy from Maria, and the Ralts put up its arms to shield itself.
"Good, now... use tackle!" Maria backed up slightly and jumped at the Ralts, slamming into it rather solidly.
"I thought you said she only knew astonish, May," I smirked.
"Hey, tackle barely counts as an attack," she shrugged. "All it is is running into the enemy."
"Mister Spencer!" I turned back to the battle and saw Maria floating in the air, flailing about wildly, and the Ralts holding its arms out. "I don't want your Pokémon getting hurt, I'm going to throw the Poké Ball now!" Wally took a deep breath and threw the ball I'd given him, somehow managing to curve it around Maria. It collided with the Ralts and... nothing happened, aside from the Ralts being knocked off-balance and Maria falling to the ground.
"Looks like that one was a dud, Spencer," May snorted.
"I'm sorry, Wally, I don't know what happened!"
"It's okay, Mister Spencer, I have another!" He fished an old-looking Poké Ball out of his pocket and gripped it tight. "This time, you're mine, Ralts!" He took another deep breath and threw the second ball. The Ralts failed to dodge it, and was sucked inside. Before I could even be sure if the capture was successful, Wally already had the Poké Ball in his hands and was jumping for joy. "I did it, Mister Spencer, I did it!"
"Great job, Wally," I said as I grabbed the ball I'd given him that had failed. I looked at it briefly and saw nothing wrong with it, but decided I'd have to have a closer look later.
"I can't believe it," he said, smiling wider than I would have thought possible. "I promise I'll take good care of him, and I won't let him down or anything! Thanks so much for your help, Mister Spencer, but I have to go now..."
"Hey, don't worry about it. You go home and show your parents your new friend, and I promise that if I'm ever in Verdanturf I'll stop by and see you, alright?" Wally nodded before turning around and running back to the city. He stopped right before he was out of sight to wave back to me. "See ya, Wally," I shouted to him.
"So, ready to move on?" I looked over to May to see her alreayd standing and ready to go.
"You're an impatient mood-killer," I scoffed. "You can't tell me that wasn't heartwarming."
"I supose," she shrugged, "but we've still got plenty of ground to cover. C'mon."