Meanwhile, back on the stage, Drew made it through the Appeals round as well with Roselia, and Harley with Banette, as well as a handful of other noteworthy Coordinators.
May, however, didn't even make it back to the lobby for quite a while. When she finally did return, she came in with a slightly less upbeat aura about her than usual, and she had a white cloth tied around her left arm, as well.
Drew approached her not long after her return, one hand stuck in his pocket as usual. "So? Where were you? You missed all the other Appeals, you know."
May looked up at him slowly from her spot on one of the benches in the lobby. "Wh-what do you mean? I was just in the bathroom..."
Drew frowned back at her. "Really? That's not something I'd expect to hear from someone like you."
"What?" May repeated, raising her voice slightly. "It's not like I can help it or anything!"
Drew held her gaze for a moment. Then he noticed the cloth tied tightly around her arm. "Well then, mind explaining what exactly that is?"
"It's called a ribbon, Drew." She shot back coolly, now just wishing that he would stop asking questions. "Is there something wrong with that?"
Drew glanced at the cloth, then at May's face, then finally at the flower Ash had given her. It was still sitting firmly on the bridge of her ear, allowing the actual flower to sit in front with the rest of her face. "Fine. I'll just pretend I didn't notice any of this." He said, throwing his free hand up in defeat. "Just don't say I didn't try."
When the Battle Round began, Drew was first, against a female Coordinator with a Seadra. He won with his Masquerain, but only by a hair - the timer expired when he had a slight lead in points. A pair of Coordinators that they didn't know were up next, a guy with a Gligar against a guy with a Loudred. The Gligar won by a pretty wide spread.
May was up next.
"All right, Pokemon fans!" Lilian roared jubilantly into the microphone. "Put your hands together for the next matchup of this Pokemon Contest's second round! First up is...May!"
May ran out onto the stage again as the crowd roared with applause, cheery as ever, but there was a also a small twinge of worry in the back of her mind. "All right, Eevee, on stage!"
"Eevee!" The small brown quadruped chimed happily, emerging onto the Contest stage for the very first time.
"And facing off against May today...it's Harley!" Lilian boomed over the deafening roar of the audience.
May recoiled slightly as she watched Harley prance out onto the stage, standing opposite her.
Ash, Max, Brock, and even Pikachu all narrowed their gazes from up in the stands as they watched him.
"Well, isn't this a delightful surprise!" Harley said sweetly, leering at May.
"Delightful for who?" May shot back.
"You..." Harley grunted angrily. "Cacturne, darling! Come to papa!"
"Cacturne!" The large cactus-like Pokemon grunted, emerging onto the field across from Eevee.
"All right...let the battle begin!" Lilian announced, the five-minute timer on the oversized scoreboard behind her beginning to count down.
"Go, Eevee! Use Tackle, now!" May commanded, gesturing across the field to Cacturne.
"Ee!" Eevee chimed, taking off across the battlefield at a run towards the enemy Pokemon.
"Cacturne, use Needle Arm!"
"Cac-turne!" Cacturne cried in affirmation, taking off across the field as well. Crossing his arms in front of him in an X-shape, all the small needles began to glow white and grow in size as he closed the distance toward Eevee.
"Eevee, quick, use Dig!"
"Ee-vee!" Eevee cried, quickly burrowing a shallow tunnel under Cacturne's feet, not ever breaking stride. Cacturne swung its arms at thin air as Eevee slid into the tunnel, emerging behind a momentarily distracted Cacturne.
"Now! Use Shadow Ball!"
"Eevee!" Eevee squeaked, firing a ball of black energy from its mouth at Cacturne's exposed back.
"A beautifully executed Dig Dodge from May and Eevee!" Lilian boomed, as Harley's points meter on the scoreboard went down slightly.
"Way to go, May!" Max cried from the stands. "That was great using Dig like that!"
Brock nodded happily. "Yeah. I didn't know Eevee knew how to Dig that quickly."
"Cacturne! Needle Arm again!"
Out of the smoke cloud from Shadow Ball, Cacturne swung around, the needles on its arms still enlarged and glowing. It swung its arms wildly at Eevee a second later.
"Eevee, quick!" May called. "Dodge, and - "
She stopped suddenly, a wave of pain rushing through her body and nearly overwhelming her. She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, grabbing the white cloth she'd tied over the Poison Fang wound.
"Huh?" Max said quizzically, gaping at his sister. "What's going on? Why'd she stop?"
"Ee...?" Eevee said questioningly, glancing around Cacturne to its trainer.
Harley merely smirked at this, gesturing to his own Pokemon. "Do it, Cacturne!"
"Caac-turne!" Cacturne roared, swatting Eevee across the field harshly with both arms.
"Eeeeeee!" Eevee roared painfully, flying across the stage and slamming into the wall.
"And Eevee takes a double Needle Arm in the face! That doesn't look good for May's points!" Lilian announced as May's points meter took a significant hit.
"Now, Cacturne! Pin Missile!"
"Cac-turne!" Cacturne bellowed, every needle on its body glowing this time as they shot off toward Eevee, one by one.
"Tch...!" May grunted, biting her lip for a moment to try and ease the pain. "E-Eevee! Use Shadow Ball again!"
"Ee...Eevee!" Eevee grunted, picking itself up off the floor before firing off another Shadow Ball toward the oncoming Pin Missile. Most of the pins hit the Ball and were destroyed, but a few got through, which Eevee dodged easily.
"A stylish Shadow Ball deflection from Eevee! But is it enough to put May back in the fight?" Lilian continued, as Harley's meter evened out with May's.
"Cacturne, keep the pressure on!" Harley commanded jubilantly. "Use Faint Attack!"
"Cac!" Cacturne boomed, charging across the stage toward the vulnerable Eevee.
"Eevee! Use - !" May began before being interrupted again by another rush of pain from her wound. She gripped the cloth harder, shooting a sad glance to her Eevee as Cacturne closed it on it.
"Cac-turne!" Cacturne finished, quickly spinning in a fake-out before slamming one of its barbed fists into Eevee's chest, sending it soaring across the field for a second time.
"And Harley's Cacturne delivers another devastating blow to Eevee!" Lilian announced. "But what is going on with May? Why isn't she giving her Eevee any orders?"
May continued gripping the white cloth with all her might, attempting to channel the pain, but it wasn't working. It was all she could do just to remain standing. Her legs began shaking as she remained there, helpless.
"Finish it, Cacturne!" Harley cried, ignoring May's situation. "Use Pin Missile once more!"
"Cactuuuurne!" Cacturne bellowed, firing off another barrage of needles.
"Eee...vee..." Eevee grunted, still trying to get up from being thrown across the field by Faint Attack. With no time to prepare, and no orders from May, there was nothing it could do against the Pin Missile attack: every single needle punctured Eevee's soft flesh, sticking it full of two dozen barbs from Cacturne. "VEEEEEEE!"
Ash, Max, and Brock all gasped at once, jumping up out of their seats as Eevee took the attack head-on. It remained standing for a few seconds, struggling with one eye open to remain in the fight, then it collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
"Well, there you have it, folks!" Lilian announced as the crowd exploded yet again. "Harley and Cacturne win the match, and will continue on to the Finals!"
Ash looked over at May from up in the stands. He noticed the white cloth tied around her arm for the first time, and saw that she was clutching it in a deathgrip. "What's that...? That wasn't there before..."
May was now struggling to hold back tears, both from the immense pain she had just felt and from knowing that she had let Eevee down, and allowed it to get hurt. As Harley recalled Cacturne and happily strutted off the field, she slowly made her way over to Eevee, still in a heap on the floor.
"Eevee...I'm sorry..." She whispered to it, retrieving its Pokeball from her pack. "It's my fault that you lost...that this happened to you..." She recalled it into its ball and drew herself up, walking off the stage after Harley.
Ash, Max, and Brock proceeded to exit the stands a short while later, heading back to the lobby to meet up with May. Once they arrived, Max and Brock instantly went over to May, but Ash was stopped before he could by a strange hand from behind him. It pulled him off to the side, around a corner and out of sight of his friends.
"Hey!" He cried angrily. "What do you think you're - "
"Whoa, sorry." Trey replied hastily, holding up his hands in defense. "Didn't mean to get you mad or anything."
Ash stared at him for a second and blinked. "Trey!"
"Pika!"
"Hey." Trey answered indifferently, waving a hand. "Look, I just wanted to let you know - you know how the Battle Frontier's shut down for right now?"
Ash nodded knowingly. "Yeah, Spenser told us about it right before we left the city."
"Well, it still is, but Brandon, the King of the Battle Pyramid, the seventh and final battle facility, is actually heading over to Sinnoh pretty soon, and Cinnabar Island happens to be on his way there."
Ash racked his brains for a moment. "...Sinnoh...?"
This time, it was Trey's turn to stare back in confusion. "You mean you've never heard of the Sinnoh region?"
Ash shook his head, along with Pikachu. "Nope."
"Well, it's an island region down south of here. Anyway, apparently he's willing to stop off on Cinnabar Island and accept challengers for one day only, and if we win, it'll be just like we beat the entire Frontier." Trey explained.
"Wow, really?" Ash replied excitedly. "So what day is he gonna be there?"
"Exactly two days from now."
"T-two days?" Ash responded incredulously.
"Pika?"
"That's barely even enough time to get there from here!"
"Yeah, I know." Trey answered, waving a hand understandably. "Me and Lily are leaving later tonight to head over there. You guys should hurry, too, if you want to have a shot at catching him in time."
"Well, thanks for telling me." Ash said, grinning at the fellow trainer. "But, uh...why'd you pull me off around this corner? Why didn't you just tell everyone?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that." Trey replied, scratching his head idly. "I just thought that your friend looked sick or something, with that injury and all. I didn't want to - "
"Injury? What injury?" Ash demanded at once.
Trey blinked. "You serious? I meant that white bandage on her arm - that's some kind of injury, right?"
Ash mentally slapped himself for not realizing that piece of information sooner. He quickly thanked Trey for the information and made his way back around the corner, toward his friends...and more importantly, May.
That's it for this chunk of updates!
Please R&R!