It was the last day before the PML. During their last week of training, May felt that she, Brendan, Wally, and Lisia had made great progress in terms of group cohesion. They were really battling as a team now, not as four trainers forced to battle at the same time. So May's pressure had lightened a little. They felt ready for the tournament and didn't want to stress themselves one day before the opening ceremony. So the team had agreed to train together in the morning, and take some free time in the afternoon.
For their last training battle, Lisia and Wally teamed up against Brendan and May.
"Come on captain, we're going to win this battle!" Brendan shouted.
It wasn't always easy to focus with the stupid nicknames her best friend gave her.
"Seriously, can you hear this guy? Ali, knock out that Scepticle and get over with him."
"Blaziken, go support Scepticle. He needs more defense than we do."
"Hey what's that supposed to mean, May?" Brendan exclaimed, offended.
"That my Pokemon has better defense stats than yours... That's just a fact."
"I don't need your help, attack Gallade instead!"
"And I don't need your advice. I know what I'm doing."
May could see that her friends were getting tired; they were more dissipated; Brendan was making more and more silly jokes and she too was having trouble staying focused. Blaziken's attack ended the battle for Wally. Then Lisia fought back as best she could but May and Brendan also ended up knocking out her Altaria.
"Phew... I gave it all I had... Who invented these sync stones?" Wally sighed. "That's what eliminates me every time."
"I must say that May's sync pair is really powerful. I was afraid your Blaziken would set the village on fire..." Lisia joked.
"Don't worry, my Pokemon controls his attacks perfectly."
She gently patted her Pokemon's arm.
"That's all for now, Blaz... You deserve a good rest," she chuckled as she called him back into her Poke Ball.
"Brendan!" Lisia said as she approached him and his Scepticle. "I didn't think you and your Pokemon were that strong."
"Well, what did you think?" This one asked by putting both hands on his hips, not trying to hide his pride. "We have the level to be friends with May."
She rolled her eyes. As if she only accepted trainers of a certain level around her. He was making her look like an arrogant champion. She sat on the bench and looked at Wally:
"Are you okay?" She asked to the young man who was looking tired. "You battled very well. It was very close, you know..."
"You say that every times, May..." He noticed with a skeptical smile.
He pulled his inhaler out of his pocket and took a deep breath.
"Oh, are you alright? Do you have asthma?" Lisia interjected, concerned.
"No, no... I mean, I do but I'm fine, don't worry. It's just that it makes me feel better to use it when I've made a big effort."
"We'd better stop here," May told them, now convinced that this was the wisest decision. "It wouldn't be smart to burn out right before the PML."
"If that's what the captain says..."
"Stop it, Brendan."
"Stop what? You're our team captain, aren't you?"
Lisia let out a small laugh.
"No, don't laugh!" May warned her. "Or he might think he's really funny."
"Sorry..."
"Good thing Lisia has a sense of humor, contrary to you," Brendan grumbled.
As if May could afford to joke around. If she hadn't been there to maintain a serious tone during their training, they would never have been ready for the PML.
After eating together, Wally got back to his room to read, while Lisia and Brendan went to the various clothing stores in the village. Finding herself alone and not wanting to stay indoors, May decided that this beautiful afternoon was a good opportunity to see more of the island and spend some time alone with her Pokemon. She needed this break. There were always so many people around her, so much noise and agitation that she needed to get away from it once in a while.
She chose to venture into the mountain. As Serena had told them, the climbing was quite easy and enjoyable. It felt good to get some height, and the view of the rest of the island was beautiful. May could see the village of Centra Town, and behind it the big arena built especially for the tournament. Further on, the forest stretched as far as her eyes could see, so much so that May could have forgotten that she was on an island.
Once she reached a certain altitude, the champion chose to stop with her Pokemon. Even though she had advised her friends to take some time off, she couldn't help but resume training with Blaziken. She wanted to know how Steven had managed to use the power of the sync stone on several opponents at once. Why couldn't her Blaziken do it too? Was it due to a lack of experience?
After making him use his attacks against the rock, May mega evolved her Pokemon and then launched their sync move. The more she used it, the more her Blaziken seemed to master it with more ease, but the impact was still in only one spot. He wasn't able to multiply the damage.
She sighed and sat down on the nearest rock, thinking about the words of the former champion; that she had impressed him and blah blah blah... He had always seen only that in her: her strength and her talent for training. So May had always done her best to impress him. Because she knew that was the only way to get his attention. Never had he considered her as a real person, with feelings.
"Crii?" Her Pokemon asked her.
"Yeah, you did good, Blaz. It's not you. It's me who can't do it."
Blaziken sat next to her, looking worried. A few meters away, May heard the sound of stones sliding on the rock... Someone wasn't far away.
"Wow, so it was you all this noise?! I knew that a really powerful trainer must have been training around here! I could feel some kind of blazing flame..."
Flannery and her Torkoal came to meet her. She had tied her fiery red hair into a ponytail behind her head and pulled on a pair of pants specifically for climbing.
"Oh hi Flannery, how are you?"
"I'm bubbling with energy. Were you training for tomorrow? Torkoal and I were looking for a spot in the mountains to do the same. How about a little battle you and me? Just for fun."
May exchanged a look with her Blaziken. Since he seemed tempted, she agreed.
"Wow, May," Flannery said, rushing over to her poor Torkoal, who had collapsed to the floor. "This brings me back a very bad memory... of the day you laminated me with that same Blaziken. Even though he was only a Torchic back then."
May remembered quite well, but at the same time, this moment seemed like an eternity ago. Flannery moved closer to Blaziken, who had gotten a little dirty from the battle.
"You have become so strong, my little raptor..."
She caressed the Pokemon, which lost a little of his magnificence to look like an affectionate bird.
"I wanted to explore the mountain a bit," May explained to Flannery. "If you already know the place..."
Flannery was a bit impulsive, but she had always been very cool with May. In the end, spending the afternoon with the gym leader would be even better than staying alone.
"Yeah, I've been there a few times before... Actually, I was with Roxanne earlier, but she wanted to stop and explore a cave with her Torkoal and... anyway, don't accompany a rock-type gym leader to that kind of place, it would have taken us one hundred years... So I planned to meet her back in about an hour. Until then, we can keep climbing together! It's good practice for me too!"
May nodded. The two trainers then set off further up the mountain, where the path became a little steeper and the climbing rougher. May could feel the sun burning against her neck and the tiredness invading her legs. Fortunately, Flannery, after consulting her PokeNav, suggested that they turn back to be on time to join Roxanne.
The descent was faster but May almost fell several times by slipping on the small stones scattered on the path. She was glad to get back to a level where the slope was less steep. Flannery guided her to the cave where she had left Roxanne. May thought she would take a look at it, because she hadn't set foot in any of the caves in Pasio yet. But her idea fell through when they arrived at the entrance, where Roxanne wasn't waiting for them alone.
May clenched her fists. This damn island was so big that it could host hundreds of trainers from all over the world, but obviously small enough for her to come face to face with Steven Stone almost every day. Actually, going to a cave was a little bit like provoking the coincidence, but still, there wasn't just one single cave on this island!
"Hi Flannery... Oh hello May... Look who I met snooping around the crystals," Roxanne said with a smirk.
At this, Steven laughed softly. Oh, was this supposed to be funny? So Roxanne actually knew how to make a joke?
"Hi Steven!" Flannery greeted him happily and May imitated her, although with less energy.
The young man didn't have his usual elegant suit. Today he had chosen a less damaging outfit, with boots, large pants, a dark shirt and a thick vest with many pockets. He also had a big backpack with a pickaxe sticking out of it and a headlamp that he had pulled up over his forehead, making his haircut even more chaotic than usual.
It was the first time that May was seeing him like this, with his clothes covered in dust, in his natural element. She couldn't help but stare at him, her annoyance at seeing him having given way to an irrepressible urge to burst out laughing. Like this, Steven gave off something different than usual, he was much less classy and looked more like a kind of oblivious nerd than a rich and famous former champion. May found the contrast amusing, almost... cute.
"Still not done with your explorations?" Flannery asked, sounding more knowledgeable than May about Steven's schedule.
"No," he replied formally. "As I was just explaining to Roxanne, I've found some really unexpected kinds of rocks so far in Pasio. Since this island was created from scratch by human hands, as a geologist you never know what to expect. You can find a certain type of crystal in a cave where it could never have formed naturally. I find this very disturbing. Nevertheless, it has allowed me to make some very nice discoveries. In particular, I got my hands on some very rare stones, coming from Kalos and Alola... The prince obviously has the financial means, he didn't do things by halves."
As May listened to him speak, she remembered the golden rule she had once been taught at the league: to never make Steven Stone talk about his passion (even though he often ended up discussing it on his own).
"Since we didn't know the exact provenance of all the rocks imported to this island, we planned to take as many samples as possible to analyze them once we returned to Hoenn," Roxanne explained.
"Wow..." Flannery said, running a hand through her hair with an overwhelmed look on her face. "That's cool! I mean, I guess for specialists like you, that must be something very exciting?"
"Indeed. It promises hours of passionate studies," Roxanne confirmed with great seriousness, before exchanging a knowing look with Steven.
"This is one of the first times I've explored a man-made island in detail," this one said. "I admit that I was a little doubtful. The decor is however very well reconstituted, it feels like we are in a completely natural environment. It's only by studying the rocks more closely that you can realize the subterfuge."
To emphasize his words, Steven pulled a rock still full of dust out from his vest and launched himself into a long explanation of why this rock could never have formed where he had found it (from what May understood, because it was an "extrusive igneous rock" and those kinds of rocks were more likely to come from volcanoes, but Steven spent ten minutes explaining this to them, so maybe it was more complicated than that), and then he began to ramble about how incredible this rock was, and how he was looking forward to examining it for hours once he got back to the Pokemon center...
Finally, Flannery dared to interrupt his long monologue:
"Sorry Steven, but I think we have to go now... Roxanne, we told Brawly we would meet him on the beach for our training. Don't tell me you forgot?"
"Right… no I didn't forget but... I didn't see the time go by," Roxanne answered, looking very worried as she looked at her watch. "You think Brawly's going to be mad at us?"
Flannery stifled a small laugh.
"Roxanne came to Pasio more for the caves than for the PML," she sighed. "Just like you, Steven."
"No, no, I didn't..." Roxanne contradicted her. "But let's say it was the presence of the caves that finally convinced me to make the trip."
Steven laughed again, as if he really found Roxanne hilarious.
"I'm sorry, I got carried away..." he apologized. "I hope you won't be too late because of me."
"Don't worry about it... Come on, bye Steven, bye May!" Flannery shouted at them.
And it was only once the two women left that May realized they left her alone with Steven in his oblivious nerd mode. Great. In Hoenn too, she often had the pleasure of meeting him by chance here and there. It seemed like a blessing to her at that time, but now May wondered if it wasn't more of a curse that she could never get out of.
Steven was smiling a lot, probably still immersed in his world full of caves, precious stones and erupting volcanoes. May didn't know what to say to him, she was afraid to make him go back to his geological delusions.
"By the way, May," he finally said, crouching down to carefully put the stone back in her bag. "Are you ready for tomorrow?"
"I think so... you?"
"I think I am as well."
He looked up at her. In the sunlight, she could admire the beauty of his blue irises, and his gaze seemed to glow. She didn't remember this, that spark of happiness in his eyes. She was pretty sure he didn't have it back then. She couldn't have forgotten it.
"You look... very happy..."
Why was she saying it out loud?! It sounded weird when she claimed it like that.
"I am..." He agreed as he stood up, not seeming annoyed by her remark. "I guess my behavior today doesn't align well with my usual pragmatism?"
"Even if that was the case, you wouldn't have to apologize for that..."
So why was she saying it reluctantly? Had she become so mean that she didn't like seeing him genuinely happy?
"May, can I ask you a favor?"
"Yes?"
Though, the favors Steven had asked of her before had always ended in bad experiences for May, like battling a furious legendary Pokemon.
"You know, during our battle to celebrate your coming to Pasio... Your sync move was breathtaking, and the sparkle of your sync stone... I had never seen something like this before, it shined so brightly..."
Ah, he was back at it again with his compliments... And May could guess where this was going to lead them.
"These stones are exceptional; they can only be found at the bottom of the ocean near Pasio. They react to the bond that grows between a Pokemon and a trainer, and like each sync pair present in Pasio, every sync stone shines a bit differently. Each one is unique. These are the conclusions I have made, but I believe there's an even greater potential hidden within these stones... That's why… May, would you agree to battle me again? Against the new Hoenn champion, I'm sure my sync stone could potentially shine brighter than it ever has before."
May did her best to not sigh.
"Alright, we can do that Steven."
She couldn't see how she could refuse. And deep down, in front of his bright eyes and childlike smile, she didn't want to. She used to love it when he started talking to her about his stones. His passion had always appealed to her; Steven without this fascination for geology would not have been the same person.
That's why during their battle, May really tried to forget the past and focus on the present. She wanted to grant Steven's wish, to show him the most beautiful shining sync stones that he had ever seen.
"Amazing May," Steven said and applauded after her sync move knocked out his Metagross, "It was even more beautiful than the last time. You always progress so fast! Just like how polishing a gemstone makes it sparkle, it seems we sync pairs need to hone our skills in order to shine as well! So… I hope you'll let me polish my battling skills with you again, one of these days..."
This time, May had the feeling that he was sincere. Just as she felt that his cheerfulness wasn't just a front but a genuine expression of his happiness.
"I hope that too," she told him in an insecure voice. "I mean, that we will battle together again..."
It was as if she didn't know how to address him normally anymore. Steven laughed softly, and May tried not to listen to that light sound that came tickling her ears. Even with dirt and that third eye on his head, May couldn't deny Steven a certain charisma. And she would have liked to be insensitive to it.
"It will be a pleasure then," he concluded. "I suppose we'll see each other at the opening ceremony tomorrow? But I don't want to keep you any longer, I guess you certainly have friends to meet for training too? As for me, I have to go back to my explorations."
He was the one who ended their time together, as in the old days, where it was always Steven who decided when it was time to say goodbye.
"Alright... See you tomorrow, then..." May replied, confused.
"See you, May," he replied.
And Steven disappeared into the cave.
