"I said what I said," he said simply, though it seemed as if he were trying hard not to laugh.
"He's off...to the Sinnoh region?" Max repeated in a gasp.
"Yep. Nothing much to it; no more, no less, though I'm sure it means a lot to you two, that simple sentence. So...I gotta go!" he said suddenly with a cheery smile, and signed out of the PC.
May and Max stared at the blank screen of the PC for a solid one minute.
"The Sinnoh region," was all May said.
"So, Max," Caroline said that lunch, "have you gone off and pestered Delia again?"
"No way, Mom," Max said defensively, "this time I called Professor Oak."
"Did he have some insight on Ash's whereabouts?"
"Yeah, he did this time—tell him, May!" Max shot a look at his sister.
May looked up from her plate to see her mom and brother looking at her expectantly. "Uh, yeah," she said. "Professor Oak said Ash's off to the Sinnoh region now."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but before I could even ask or say more, he said a sudden 'See you later' and signed out."
"Well," Caroline said lightly, "he's a Pokémon professor, and that means a lot of research to do. You're lucky he found time to answer your questions."
"He did sound pretty hasty," Max added.
Ash's already gone off to start his journey, May said in her mind. Shouldn't I do the same?
"May," Caroline said, "it's already been two weeks—when are you going off to Johto?"
May didn't respond right away; her mind was off wandering, going forward to seeing her old rivals Drew, Harley, Solidad...then add to that the fact she was alone and all by herself this time...every Pokémon she could possibly encounter...
"May?"
The young Trainer looked up at her mom with a smile. "Mom, I'll be starting my journey tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" her mom repeated, mildly surprised; even Max was taken aback by the date. "Really, May?"
She nodded. "Yup—I've stayed too long, and now it's time for me to hit the road!"
Just then, their dad, Norman, arrived through the front door. "Hey, everyone!"
"Dad!" Max called with joy. "Right on time!"
"Dear," Caroline called to her husband, "I've got some news for you!"
"Huh? I just got here for two seconds and there's news for me?" Norman chuckled.
"Yes—Norman, our daughter is heading to Johto."
"Tomorrow!" Max added.
"Oh," Norman said, then looked at May. "Are you sure about this, May?"
"Of course I'm sure," May said, smiling.
The next day, May was in her room, packing her bags.
There was a knock on her door.
"Come in," she called to whoever was behind the door.
Her mom came in with a bunch of clothes with her. "May, dear, try putting these on."
She placed the folded fabrics on May's bed and turned to go out when she added, just before she closed the door. "I think it's time for a change of outfit, right?" she winked at her daughter.
"What...?" May mumbled, confused, then she gave the clothes a closer look and smiled. "Hey—new clothes!"
Later, May was at the port that had a ship departing for Johto. Her usual outfit that composed of a red shirt, white skirt, and blue bicycle shorts together with a yellow waistpack topped with a red bandana and along with that, red and yellow shoes were replaced with a sleeveless red-orange dress and black bicycle shorts, together with a green bandana, a green waistpack and red and white shoes.
Her family was there to say their goodbyes.
"Remember to call home every once in a while and tell us how you're doing," her mom said.
"Sure, Mom, I will," May said.
"We'll be supporting you all the way," her dad said.
"I'll be watching on TV!" Max added.
May nodded. "Thanks, guys." Then she looked at the clock and saw it was almost time for the boat to set sail. "Oh! I better get going!"
She quickly got on board just in time for the boat to blow its horn and depart. She looked at her family and shouted, "Bye, everyone—Mom, Dad, Max!" She waved at them; they waved back.
When her family completely disappeared into view, she looked at the sky and at the flock of Taillow that were soaring above.
"I wonder if this was how Ash felt whenever he goes off to a new region all by himself," May muttered, smiling at the Taillow flock.
Then she let all her Pokémon out. "Come on out, you guys!"
Every one of her Pokémon—Blaziken, Skitty, Beautifly, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Munchlax, and Eevee—were all looking at May with the same look of excitement and anticipation that must have been on her face all morning.
"Okay, guys," she said to all her Pokémon, "looks like we're off to the Johto region!"
All her Pokémon cheered in excitement.
"We'll be seeing new places, battling new rivals, probably running into the old ones too, then there's new Contest challenges!"
Louder cheers!
May laughed with their excitement and looked ahead at their destination. "All right—Johto, here we come—What the?!"
May gasped as she saw heard an uproar coming from the ship's lower deck. Frantically, she turned to her Pokémon. "What was that? Let's go check it out!"
Her Pokémon all nodded in agreement, and they followed their Trainer to check on what had just happened.
Running to the lower deck, they saw a couple of men, a Medicham and a Hariyama. The Hariyama closed in on the Medicham to deliver an attack.
"Hariyama, stop!" one of them called to the Hariyama; he was probably the Pokémon's Trainer.
The Hariyama didn't seem to notice or hear its Trainer, as it continued to attack the Medicham; but this time, the latter managed to dodge and deliver a counterstrike.
"You, too, Medicham, that's enough!" the other man called to the Pokémon, most likely its Trainer, just like the first one.
Just like the Hariyama, the Medicham didn't seem to hear its Trainer as well, as it continued to focus solely on attacking the opposing Pokémon.
"What happened?" May asked.
The man who was Hariyama's Trainer answered. "Just a while ago, Hariyama and I were exploring the lower deck of the ship—you know, for fun—when we bumped into a Medicham and its Trainer. At first, it was going fine—it started out friendly between those two."
"But one time, it was time for us to go back to the upper deck for a snack, but Hariyama, he...," the man who was Medicham's Trainer trailed off, then continued, "he tripped—he probably didn't see his own feet; can't say I blame him—and he accidentally knocked over Medicham, and...Well, you know that as a Fighting-Type Pokémon, he wouldn't take that lying down..."
"He attacked the Hariyama, thinking that he'd done it on purpose, and Hariyama didn't like it one bit, and so...Yeah, you know the rest..."
"We tried to stop them, but nothing happened—we even tried putting them back in their Pokéballs, but they popped back out! The whole fight thing is too deep to be stopped by simply putting the Pokémon back in their balls."
May frowned. "What do we do now?"
"I've been thinking of wearing them out—that way we'll be able to get them to listen, but it won't be easy."
May just hatched an idea. "Can I help? Maybe I"—she stopped to look at her Pokémon and rephrased her words—"or maybe 'we' can help out!"
The man who was Hariyama's Trainer smiled. "Thanks, miss...?"
"I'm May and these are my Pokémon—Blaziken, Skitty, Beautifly, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Munchlax and Eevee." She gestured at each of her Pokémon, who all made their noises of hellos in response.
"Hi, I'm Stephen."
"And I'm Robbie," the man who was Medicham's Trainer said.
"Okay, how are we going to...wear them out?" May wondered aloud.
The three huddled closer and Stephen whispered, "Look, this is what we're going to do..."
May, Stephen and Robbie hid behind the crates and waited for even the tiniest hole in Hariyama and Medicham's fight.
Finally, after a few seconds, the two Pokémon slid inches apart from each other, which was a relief for the Trainers since those two have been so close for the last few minutes.
"Now's our chance," May whispered joyfully, then took out three of her Pokémon for the moment. "Come on out, Blaziken, Skitty and Squirlte!"
After a flash of light, her three Pokémon came out, all pumped up and ready to fight.
It worked—Hariyama and Medicham stopped cold, looking all three of May's Pokémon, speechless.
May didn't waste a fragment of a second as she launched her first assault right away. "Skitty, use Blizzard!"
Immediately, the Kitten Pokémon let loose a cruel gust of ice-cold wind all over the place, resulting to a frozen Medicham...
But Hariyama was still standing strong.
"What the—?" May stuttered, shocked.
"It's Hariyama's ability, which is Thick Fat; it reduces the damage of Ice and Fire type moves," Stephen explained.
May struggled to think fast—she counted for both to be out; since Medicham was the only one frozen, he'd be clear on the advantage—so, without missing a beat, she quickly blurted, "Blaziken, Fire Spin!"
Just as quick as the order, Blaziken sprung into action and entrapped Hariyama in a ring of fire. The Arm Thrust Pokémon blanched at the flames that surrounded him.
"Yes," Robbie hissed joyfully. "It may not do much to Hariyama but that's good enough—now, May, remember what I planned."
May nodded. "Sure do! Now, Squirtle, use—"
Before May could execute a command for her Squirtle—and before Squirtle could even tense for carrying out an attack—Hariyama managed to break free from the Fire Spin and launch a multiple Arm Thrust attack on Squirtle and Skitty.
"No!" May cried.
Stephen watched with wide-eyed shock. Robbie gasped an "oh no!" while looking at the two Pokémon that were seriously down.
"Squirtle! Skitty!" May gasped. Then she turned to face Hariyama. "The plan can't fail now….Blaziken, use Blaze Kick!"
In response to not just his Trainer's words, but also to Squirtle and Skitty's downfall, Blaziken launched a powerful flaming kick straight at Hariyama, which caused the latter to fall back.
May knew she needed more than just Blaziken to stop Hariyama, but now Skitty and Squirtle were down for the—
Wait, what's this?
Squirtle seems to be getting up, and…
May, Stephen and Robbie all watched, flabbergasted, as a change began to take place in Squirlte's form.