All the teams participating in the PML were dispersed into the large arena where the battles would take place. The bleachers were already filled with very enthusiastic spectators who whistled and cheered every time a new team entered on the terrain. After facing the league May should have been unimpressed but faced with the vastness of the arena and the thousands of people gathered to watch the battles, she was seriously starting to get nervous. All the people, all the noise, all the lights were starting to make her head spin, so she was relieved when the silence suddenly fell, before she realized the reason: three trainers dressed in white had appeared at the entrance of the arena. Two of them were standing in the background; a strong man with a dark complexion and a woman with long purple hair and a blouse too big for her. The third stepped forward with a micro in his hand.
"I declare the Pokemon Master League open!" He announced. "My name is Lear and I am the organizer of this tournament. Let the opening ceremony begin!"
As May suspected, this was the famous prince she had heard so much about. He wasn't at all as she had imagined him; instead of a crown, he wore some kinds of red glasses that completely hid his eyes. He had a strange haircut and wore a black and red armband on each forearm.
"Sync pairs from all over the world, listen up!" Lear continued. "You are here on this island... on MY island, which I built specifically to host this tournament and determine which team is the best. So you better give all you got to win the PML! Well, I mean you can always try because it's obvious that the best trainer here is ME! Hahahahaaa..."
At these words, the audience covered the arena with a thunderous applause. Either this prince was very arrogant or really strong to dare to speak like that.
"Seriously, who does he think he is?" Brendan said, echoing her thoughts. "He really thinks he can compete with champions like May or Cynthia or Lance...?"
"Maybe he set up this whole tournament just to prove it," Lisia laughed.
"Or maybe he's just saying that to motivate us even more?" Wally wondered.
"Well, it's working! Because that kind of talk makes me want to show him who the best trainers here really are!" Brendan exclaimed, clenching his fist. "I hope we get a chance to battle him to prove it"
"In a few moments," the prince continued, bringing silence back to the arena, "you will know the names of your opponents for the first round of the tournament and the time your battle will take place. And of course, the teams that end up losing will be eliminated from the tournament... On that note, I wish good luck to everyone... You will need it!"
After a long burst of laughter, the prince turned around and joined his two assistants. The excitement returned to the arena as some teams left the stage to prepare themselves while other trainers started chatting with each other.
"Well... now we just have to wait..." Wally said. "I'm going to sit down somewhere, I don't really like being around so many people."
"And I'm just going to say hi to my uncle, I saw him earlier," Lisia said before walking away.
"We better go sit down too," May said to Brendan. "We don't know how long it will take them to show the battle list."
They joined Wally in the first bleacher seats. From there, May could see familiar trainers all around them, like Dawn, Barry and their third teammate on the terrain. Glacia and her Ice Pokemon friends were a few seats from them, and farther Cynthia, the champion of Sinnoh was standing proudly, surrounded by a small fan club of trainers of all ages.
She eventually spotted Lisia along with her uncle, and not surprisingly, Drake and Steven. This time, May wasn't sure if the tightness in her heart was due to the presence of the former champion of Hoenn or the apprehension of her first battle. When Lisia came back to her and her friends, the young man turned his head in their direction and waved a friendly hand. May returned it to him, hoping that she was the recipient of his sign.
"So, my uncle told me that the list is going to appear on the big screens at 9 am... That is, any second now!" She excitedly told them.
All four of them stared at the nearest screen. On it were shining the initials of the PML with a countdown. 10... 9... 8… May held her breath, praying that their first opponents would not be legendary trainers like Red or Cynthia... 3... 2... 1... She squinted her eyes to find their names in the long list of battles on the screen...
"Team May from Hoenn... Against Team Hau from Alola..." Wally read with a focused voice. "And our battle will be at 11."
"So soon?!" Brendan wondered.
"Alola? Oh amazing! I love this region so much," Lisia exclaimed, not sounding anxious at all.
"Um..." May started. "Does anyone know who this Hau is? Is he from the league of Alola...?"
"Wait, I'm gonna check," Brendan said, pulling out his PokeNav. "So... at least he's not an Elite 4, or a champion."
"Maybe it's a Captain... You know in Alola, it's a different system, they don't have gym leaders" Wally reminded May.
Right. Anyway, May had never heard of them. So their opponents had to be self-taught trainers, but that wasn't a reason to underestimate them. May would never accept to be eliminated from the PML after their first battle.
"Excuse us..."
A dark-skinned boy wearing a Hawaiian shirt was coming towards them, accompanied by two other trainers; a shirtless teenager with flame-like hair and a short, and a slightly overweight blonde boy.
"You're the Hoenn champion, right?" The boy asked.
"Yes, that's me... Are you Hau?" She guessed.
The three boys did have the casual clothes and attitude of the people from Alola.
"Hahaha... Yes and it seems that your guys are our first opponents."
"It seems so," May nodded.
"So nice to meet you! I'm Hau and this are Sophocles and Kiawe."
"Yes..." The blond boy said, looking uncomfortable. "I'm Sophocles."
"Alola!" said Kiawe. "Sophocles and I are both Captains in Alola."
May took the lead in introducing her own team. At least their opponents looked friendly.
"We just came to wish you good luck," Hau explained, "and also to tell you that we're going to give it our all, you'll see."
"Yeah, we're not going to hold back," Kiawe assured.
"We don't plan on losing either," Brendan responded.
"Then may the best team win?" concluded Hau, holding out his hand.
"May the best win," May nodded with a smile.
May had been careful to spot the type of their opponents' Pokemons. Hau's and Sophocles' were electric Pokemons and Kiawe's was a fire-type one. To beat the first two, May was counting on Brendan's Scepticle advantage, then she would take care of Kiawe with her Blaziken. As a tech, Lisia had volunteered to be the last member of their team for this battle. As she seemed very motivated and Wally seemed a bit stressed and oppressed by the crowd, the two had no trouble agreeing.
The battle was easier than May expected. Actually, Brendan managed to knock out Sophocles from the very beginning of the battle, and then the three of them easily managed to eliminate Kiawe and Hau.
"If all battles are this easy, I think we're going to be finalists!" Brendan boasted.
May silently told him to shut up as the three Alola trainers came towards them.
"Argh... We lost... but... it was a cool battle," Sophocles said, not looking that disappointed. "I'm glad I participated. This battle helped me forget all my stress."
May gave him a gentle smile. She too, with the adrenaline, had completely forgotten her apprehension and the public watching them to give everything she had.
"I must say, facing a champion in the first round... That was tough. We weren't ready for that," Kiawe said, crossing his arms.
"That's true," acknowledged Hau, who was the one who looked the saddest from the three. "But I'm really bummed that I lost. I was counting on the PML to get stronger..."
At his words, Brendan patted him on the shoulder.
"Hey, all three of you battled really well... Besides... there's still room in our team if you want."
"Are you serious? You'd let us join your team?" Hau asked.
"Well... what do you say, captain?"
Brendan turned to May. She saw no reason to refuse. On the contrary, having electric-types allies could be useful for them in the future. Having as many different types on their team as possible was a good idea to guarantee them the type advantage against their future opponents.
"Yeah, you're welcome among us, Hau," she confirmed.
"Oh really?! Thank you so much! I'll do my best you'll see!"
"And you two, do you want to join us too?" Brendan offered.
"No, that's kind of you but… as a Captain, I think it's important for me to accept my defeats and learn from my mistakes. So I'll meditate on this battle instead." Kiawe answered.
"Me too," Sophocles said. "Instead, I'll sit with the public and watch the battles from there. I need new data, it will help me with my inventions."
Brendan, May and Lisia congratulated them one last time and with Hau, they joined Wally who was still waiting for them in the bleachers. In the meantime, he had been joined by Norman, but Brendan didn't jump with joy when he discovered his father's presence.
"Congratulations. I had no doubt the three of you would win."
"Dad! Did you enjoy the battle?" Brendan asked reluctantly.
"Of course. You did very well Brendan. That said, I think you should have launched your sync move later. You always tend to be impatient when you battle. If you had let Lisia weaken your opponents more first, the damage would have been greater!"
"Wow, did you follow the battle that carefully, Mr. Norman?" Lisia marveled. "No wonder Brendan is so strong with a father like you..."
"Yeah, well, I still had to do some work myself," the young man clarified with a grumpy tone.
"Ah Lisia... I didn't know you were participating in the PML with my son... You four will make an interesting team."
"Five," May corrected gently. "Hau just joined us, he's a trainer from Alola."
Hau made a big smile:
"Nice to meet you, sir."
"You're right, young people. Unity and diversity is what makes the difference." Norman approved, looking at Hau. "I'll leave you now. I have to join my teammates to get us warmed up; our battle starts at 1pm."
"Okay… bye dad, good luck," Brendan grumbled.
He waited until his father was far away before adding with a sigh:
"Why does he think we still need his constant validation and valuable advice all the time? He can totally keep them for himself!"
"It's because he puts great hopes in you," Lisia explained. "My uncle does the same with me. He always wants me to do my best too."
"Yeah... But it's just so annoying. I'm twenty-one, I'm not a kid anymore! And I didn't beat all the gym leaders from Hoenn to get lessons from my father on every move of my Pokemon!"
"Well, come on, don't take it like that… I know, we're going to eat something, it'll calm you down," Lisia said, taking him by the arm.
May, Wally and Hau followed them.
As they left the arena, many trainers were there to cheer them on. Calem, Serena and Korrina had their battle just before May's team and they had won it successfully. May had really enjoyed watching them battle; all three of them had used Mega Evolution, which had made their battle even more exciting.
"Congratulations to the three of you," May gently told them.
"No, congratulations to you!" Korrina said as she approached on her rollers. "Your battle was so cool..."
"We were planning to go on a picnic in the woods to celebrate our first victory," Serena told them, pointing to the large basket Calem was holding. "But we'll probably have too much food for three... Do you want to join us?"
"Hey that's a great idea," Lisia said, jumping at the chance. "Brendan, a nice picnic will surely put a smile on your face, won't it?"
"Hmm," said the latter, crossing his arms.
"I would have liked to train a little and I must heal my Pokemon... go without me, I don't have a victory to celebrate anyway," Hau said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Maybe he needed some time to accept his defeat or he didn't feel fully comfortable with them yet, May thought.
"I would like to take the time to train this afternoon too since I didn't battle today," Wally said. "Can I come with you?"
"Yeah, sure," Hau smiled.
Knowing how seriously Wally took trainings, May knew there was no point in convincing him to stay with them.
"Okay, we'll see each other later then," she told them. "But don't work too hard either! I want you in top shape for the battle of tomorrow!"
