Hi everyone and welcome back to chapter fifteenth of this story. This chapter and the following will see May go a bit out of her comfort zone.

Chapter 15: May's Fieldwork Part 1

When May signed up to go field working with the professor and her best friend, she never knew it entailed waking up at four in the morning. Of course, she was reluctant to go with them when they first mentioned it, but after much persuasion from her mother and from her friend she agreed to go with them. Something that she wished she hadn't.

It wasn't a completely terrible experience. Sure, getting chased by a pack of angry poochyena after falling off a tree and hitting the leader, then getting thrown into a mud puddle was not her ideal way of starting her first day as an assistant, but it at least ensured that it was a memory she wasn't going to forget soon and it made her second and final day seem more ordinary than the first.

The familiar obnoxious tapping sound from the window awoke the eleven-year-old brunet girl right in the middle of a pleasant dream. Her eyes slowly opened the reveal the pitch-black darkness that was her room. She pondered whether there had been a solar eclipse or if her eyes were playing tricks on her. She glanced over to her digital clock to have both thoughts thrown out the window.

It's four in the freaking morning and he's already waking me up? Doesn't he know I need my beauty sleep! She thought to herself as she laid on her bed. She had gotten a crash course from Brendan about what researchers do. One of the details he mentioned was that researchers sometimes need to wake up early to get the most work done in a day.

When the obnoxious tapping didn't stop, she realized that she had no other option but to wake up. She could always stay in bed, but she knew that her neighbor would not give up so easily. She knew that feeling all too well when she had overslept and made them late for school. She knew that the boy was willing to take any means to wake up her, even if he did end up waking the entire town in the process. She remembered how multiple times when his constant tennis ball tosses to her window didn't wake her up, he would shortly go back into his house and grab a trumpet where he would proceed to toot the instrument loudly until she finally cracked.

She would quickly walk over to her window and slam it open. She would then yell at him, "I'm up already so shut up!"

And he would yell back, "snorlax you've slept in again, we're gonna be late!"

Then she would go back inside and begin to get ready in a hurry. Sometimes her mother even forgot to wake her up as Max was putting her through the wringer.

Taking care of a little one certainly wasn't easy, and it didn't help that the little one had grown to be quite a brat. For someone so small, he acted as if he owned everything.

The sound silence stopped her in her flashback. She knew what was coming after the tapping stopped. She quickly made her way out of the bed and ran towards her window. She slammed the window open and yelled, "Brendan wait! I'm awake now!"

She said it just in time as the boy outside, who was dimly lit from the streetlights, already had the trumpet in position and ready to use it.

"Great to see that you're awake sleepyhead, you can come by my place for breakfast if you want," he greeted, moving the trumpet away from his lips and placing it back down in its case.

She managed a nod before rushing back in and changing out of her pajamas and into something that would be more appropriate for the environment. Well somewhat more appropriate for the environment as she also wanted to keep a sense of style. She picked out something very similar to what she had seen Brendan wear when he went on his trips. She picked out a white long sleeve button up shirt, a dark blue knee-length skirt, with shorts underneath along with black rain boots since it had been raining quite a bit lately.

She walked down the stairs to her living room where she wrote a note for her mom, telling her that she went with her neighbors and would be back later. She didn't know at what time they would be back, so it would be best to say that she will be back later instead of giving a solid time.

She grabbed her yellow fanny pack that her mother had helped her pack the day before. It contained all the essentials she would need such as a change of clothes, snacks, water bottles, an umbrella, first aid kit, bug spray, sunblock, and even a tent and sleeping bag if she needed it. She was immensely surprised when all those items fit in the small bag effortlessly.

Naturally she asked the one person she was sure was knowledgeable about to subject to explain how it worked. Brendan said that it was a new technology that was developed in Sinnoh to make traveling easier for trainers. It combined the same technology to store pokemon in their pokeballs to bags, allowing bags to shrink down the items and make them as light as possible. He had also told her that his green turtle shell like backpack was the same and even said he could fit his bike in effortlessly.

She raised an eyebrow not believing that claim at first until he showed her. He grabbed his bike and opened his backpack. In a split second the bike was enveloped in a red aura like that of a returning pokemon and was shrunk down to fit into the bag. He later pulled it out without much effort and there it was like before. These bags were truly miracles.

He did however say that he heard a voice say something strange in his head every time he pulled his bike out indoors. He has described it as some old man from a far-off region or something like that.

She opened her front door to be greeted with the cool October air. As she had expected the entire town was still asleep.

Like who in their right mind would be up at this hour she internally commented.

The streets were dark say for the parts that were lit with street lamps. Her eyes drifted to her neighbor's house where she saw that the lights were already on. She softy closed the door behind her, locked it, and then walked to the professor's house.

She rang the doorbell upon arriving and it was quickly opened to reveal the shape of brown haired boy. She could see him more clearly now, as opposed to earlier. He was wearing his usual fieldwork outfit along with his lab coat. She saw that he was eating a piece of toast while in the background she saw his two pokemon happily munching on their own food.

"Took you long enough, come on, Dad make breakfast." He grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

"Gee Brendan a good morning, would have been nice you know," she replied once inside.

"Good Morning May," he said back sarcastically as he lead her into the dining room where she saw Professor Birch wearing a black apron while carrying around a frying pan.

"Ah good morning May, nice to see that you made it. I was afraid Brendan would of set of fireworks if you didn't wake up," he joked as he was laying out a plate for May.

"Good morning professor," she greeted back. Taking a seat opposite to Brendan. She saw that he had already cleaned out his plate and was going for another serving. "I better get some before he eats it all," she joked looking at the boy's eating face. His face looked like a pikachu stuffing its face. She couldn't help but crack a smile.

He offered her a smile saying, "well May, we are gonna need as much energy today, so make sure you eat. You never know what may happen."

It came as no surprise when her face met a torrent of cool water before she got her serving from the Professor. Over the past five years she had been getting hit with water almost every day to the point where she just decided to give up in trying to avoid it. No matter how hard she tried to avoid the small water type, he would somehow find her and shoot her down.

"Good morning to you Skipper," she greeted sarcastically already pulling her towel out her bag to dry herself.

"Mud Mud!" the water type exclaimed before turning back to his bowl of food. As usual Brendan had his hand over his mouth in an effort to cover his laughter.

"Looks like you're fully awake now May. Maybe Skipper sensed you were still sleepy and woke you up with that water gun," Professor Birch said while laying a large plate of waffles, eggs, bacon and toast in front of her.

"I'm sure that was it," she sarcastically responded giving a small glare to the still laughing boy and the water type.

Professor Birch removed his apron, placing it on a hook in the kitchen and then grabbed his brown satchel. "You kids come down to the jeep once you're done, we've got a lot of stuff to do today".

They gave him a nod before he left through the front door to his jeep.

"I thought your mom cooked, not your dad."

"Well Mom didn't appreciate waking up at the four in the morning to cook breakfast, so Dad and I had to learn how to make it ourselves," he began, pouring May a glass of orange juice.

"Sounds just like my mom," she said, grabbing the glass and then eating the enormous serving within five minutes. Brendan had already finished his, so he carried his plates to the kitchen then walked back to see his pokemon. He returned Drake to his ball, but Skipper wanted to stay out. As usual the boy placed the water type on his head then headed out the door with his backpack.

"We'll be waiting for you at the jeep," he said before exiting.

The jeep was speeding down the dirt road as May was desperately holding onto the chair in an effort to not fly out the window. Brendan merely eyed the clipboard in his hands reading over some of the previous data he had gathered earlier that week. He had told her that today they would be visiting the hillside and the woods to study the mating rituals of the poochyena. He had also told her that Professor Birch wanted to find a certain poochyena and get his revenge because it had chased the man then bit him on the backside.

"Here we are kids," the professor said as the parked the car under a large maple tree. The landscape was covered with hills with green grass coating them. Trees of all different kinds such as maple, willow, birch, and oaks dotted the hills. There were also small shrubs and bushes growing around the area.

The pair had gotten outside to be greeted with the cool October air as well as the sun's ray as it began to move over the horizon. "Brendan, why don't you show May the ropes and I'll do my own work," the professor suggested.

"Right Dad," he nodded. He grabbed May's hand and led her to a nearby oak tree. "Come on May, we can get a great view from up here," he said motioning to the top of the tree.

"Wait, you mean, you want to climb the tree?" she asked with widened eyes. She didn't have much outdoors experience and she definitely had no idea how to climb trees.

"Yeah how else are we supposed to get a view of the area?" He questioned, already beginning to effortlessly climb like he was a mankey.

"But Brendan, I don't know how to climb," she retorted, afraid that she would fall and hurt herself or him in the process.

"Don't worry I'll help you," he reassured with a smile. He held his hand out for the girl. She hesitantly grabbed his hand and was gently helped up onto the branches.

"From here on out it's like the monkey bars at the playground, just don't look down," he teased.

She scoffed then followed after him as he climbed further up the tree. When he reached a large branch near the top he stopped to set his bag down and to look for May who was struggling. "Need any help," he asked. A grin was tugging at his lips like he knew that May was having a hard time.

"Nah I got this," she said more confidently than she felt. A small yelp left her mouth as her foot almost slipped off the branch she was using as support. "On second thought, yes, I could use some help," she admitted avoiding eye contact with him.

Like before he extended his hand for her and gently helped her up. She was treated to a magnificent view of the route when she sat next to him. From the distance, she could spot Littleroot Town and Oldale Town.

"You should see this place when it's spring," he began, taking a pair of binoculars from his bag. "The cherry blossoms are in full bloom coating the area in a pink shade. The hills are covered in all different colored flowers. Maybe you should come during spring to see it," he said while looking through the binoculars.

"I would like to," she responded. "And what are the binoculars for? You look silly."

"Well May, they are too look for the poochyena pack I told you about. It's much easier to spot them up here and then head towards their direction than it is for us to look around them on foot."

"What's so special about them anyway?" Taking a look at the sun that was halfway past the horizon, coating the sky in an orange and red shade.

"Well nothing really, just came to observe how the male and females behave together. Like you know how they get it on sort of speak," he said enthusiastically while still looking for them.

May's face had grown a soft shade of red at his words. She had recently had the talk with her parents about it, and the fact that the boy spoke about it so casually made her feel embarrassed.

"Ah found them!" He exclaimed, pointing east. "It would probably be best If we get down and locate them now," he said putting his supplies back in his bag.

"Brendan wait!" The girl exclaimed. "Why don't we just stay and see this sunrise together?" She suggested.

A blush grew on the boy's face at her words and he said, "Umm sure… I don't see why not."

She gave him a smile and they sat together for the next fifteen minutes observing as the sun made its way onto the sky. They made casual chat with Brendan teasing her like always and May providing her own teases as well. She realized she could no longer tease him on his height as it was now he who was slightly taller than she was. She didn't know what had come over her as she slowly closed her eyes and began laying her head on his shoulder. Perhaps she was tired from waking up to early and wanted to take a nap, or perhaps she wanted something else entirely.

The boy didn't stop her as he too closed his eyes and leaned his head against the girl's. Maybe he too was tired from waking up early, or it was something else entirely.

The feeling of falling, followed by a soft hit and a loud yelp caused the pair, who had been sleeping for the past couple of hours, to open their eyes. They were utterly confused of the image they saw when they woke up. Instead of seeing tree tops and hills they were seeing the sky dotted with clouds along with tree canopies.

A loud furious bark alerted them that they were laying on top of a couple of poochyenas that had broken their falls and they realized that they had fallen down the tree while they were asleep. They both quickly sprinted to their feet realizing they had squished about seven of the gray furred mammals and saw how the pokemon recomposed themselves on their feet. One look at the leader's eyes told the pair that he meant business.

"May," Brendan gulped, "looks like we will be getting our daily exercise."

"What do you mean-" she was cut off as Brendan grabbed her hand and began running through the woods dragging May behind him. It's true that poochyena packs can be quite aggressive when provoked and their earlier actions certainly provoked at least thirty of them.

The pair was running as fast they could and the pack was only gaining on them. "Brendan can't you do something?" May asked, struggling to keep the pace.

"There's too many for Skipper and Drake to handle," he panted while looking around for some sort of place they could hide until the heat died down.

Skipper who was still on the boy's head after falling down the tree was ordered to use an ice beam to slow them down. Much to his dismay and the boy's the attack only slowed them down slightly as the pack skied its way across the frozen terrain.

"Don't they ever give up?" May asked, beginning to feel exhausted.

"Nope, Poochyena are pokemon that will chase until their prey becomes exhausted," Brendan breathed tiredly, beginning to feel exhausted as well.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" she asked.

Well… how do you feel about getting dirty?"

The girl would take anything at the moment if it meant avoiding a mauling by the pokemon.

"Anything, just get them out of our tail," she yelled.

"Glad to hear it," he responded leading them towards a different direction. He stopped at a large hole that was covered in mud and nudged May forward. Now she really regretted telling him it was fine, but before she had time to protest he jumped in and since he still had a hold of May's hand, she was dragged in as well.

They both fell with a large muddy splash.

"Cover yourself with as much as you can," she heard. "It will hide our scent and appearance," he continued, as the boy was already rubbing himself with the mud. Skipper was also slapping mud across him as well. May, although she hated it, needed to do the same. She grabbed large piles of mud and threw them onto herself ruining her outfit. She was so gonna get him back after this. "Get down once you're done," she heard. The boy and pokemon were already laying down not moving to camouflage with the mud.

The boy knew that although poochyena were fierce, they weren't particularly bright. He noticed May make her way down as well as the pack neared the puddle. The leader appeared to be surveying the puddle for a minute before he called for the pack to leave. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the boy stood up panting in relief, "well that was close."

"Ohh Brendan," he heard in a sweet voice. He turned around to see a muddy May carrying a mud ball in her right hand and hurling it at him where it hit him in the face. "That's what you get for dragging me in."

The boy created a smirk, "so that's how you wanna play then?" making his own mudball and hurling it at the girl. It also struck her in the face. The water type had also decided to join in the fun as he began using mud slap on the boy and girl.

The sun was beginning to dip back into the sky as Brendan and May got out the puddle and were being rinsed off by Skipper's water gun. The attack managed to get the mud off them, but their clothes were horribly stained with mud. They walked over to opposite sides of the clearing and changed clothes. Luckily for them, their bags were made so they could take a good beating as well as being waterproof. It's a good thing they both carried extra sets in case something happened.

Although they had rinsed out, and changed clothes, they still looked pretty dirty. When nothing else could be done, they had simply decided to head back to where they first started, hopefully not running into any more poochyena.

"So Brendan did we get any data?"

"Oh shoot, we didn't get any data at all," he said as they headed back to the jeep where Professor Birch was waiting.

"Won't your dad be mad?" she asked in slight concern.

"Nah, not once I tell him the data we collected," he said.

"What data? You just said you didn't collect any."

"You know the one about how ferocious poochyena are, how long they chased after us, how their smell and sight are affected by mud, and how we got this dirty," he joked.

May could only crack a smile as they neared the professor. He eyed them for a second before asking, "what happened to you. You look like you fell into a mud puddle."

Brendan's smile widened as he said, "well Dad that's exactly what happened. Right May?"

"Right."

Brendan then told the professor the entire story about being chased, the mud puddle and their all-out mud war that caused them to look like this.

"Well you two certainly look like you had fun and you did gather some data so it's not a complete waste. Why don't we head home to get dinner and get you cleaned up," motioning for the jeep.

They were more than happy to follow as the professor started the jeep up and drove them back to Littleroot.

"May," the girl heard from the backseat. She turned to face the boy who had a wide smile on his face. "Dad won't be coming tomorrow so you can get to sleep in and we can have more fun tomorrow."

"I look forward to it," she responded with a similar smile. Perhaps this day wasn't as much as a disaster as she thought it would be.

An: The main reason why I wrote this chapter and the following one was to create a buffer between the pool chapter and chapter 17 since chapter 17 was originally meant to go right after 14, but due to time skip being too large, I decided to write these two chapters to make the skip seem not as big. As always here's our pair's ages:

Brendan- 11

May-11

I'm not really sure if mentioned it before, but the main reason why I changed the age of becoming a trainer(at least in Hoenn) was because I think 10 year olds are way too young to be going out on their own in the world. Granted this is the pokemon world, but it still feels just strange to be letting little kids take on the world. Hopefully you guys enjoyed and I hope to see you back next update!