Please note, while this is more planned out than the previous, it's still not that planned out. As a result, it might end up being just as short. But it's a May focused chapter (if you couldn't tell from the fire pun in the title), so it won't be as bad. But, I'm quite busy so you could very well be reading this on Saturday instead of Friday. Fingers crossed this isn't the case. Anyway, I do have a bit of a plan, but not much, so here's hoping it turns out alright. I know I should slow down on the upload schedule in order to properly plan these out, but I also know that the longer this takes to get out, the more likely it will be that I will grow bored of writing this. So, I must keep soldiering on. Anyway, here's the latest chapter.
Chapter 72:
A Fiery Duo
May stares at the newspaper in front of her, feeling her heart flutter so fast it may have some Beautifly hatching out of it. While the main headline on it is Ammon's announcement of Team Terra's attempt on his life, one of the other headlines is about her. Not the 10th Blaziken Mask, but May Maple herself. In the picture is her, dressed in the dress she wore during her interrupted charity event. In the picture next to her is Drew, wearing the green suit he wore for the previous Ribbon Cup. The title underneath the pictures reads, "Hoenn's Newest Power Couple?" May groans and buries her face into the paper. At hat moment, Drew comes into their hotel room, carrying a takeaway. "Everything alright?" he asks. In response, May holds out the paper for him to read. He reads the title and goes slightly pink. "How the Mirror World did they find out!?" May wonders aloud. Drew looks away awkwardly. "That, eh, may have been my fault."
May looks up at him. "How is that your fault?" she asks him. Drew explains how when he shouted out that she was in trouble, he let slip that she was his girlfriend. May groans again and lies down on the bed, putting a pillow on her face. "I'm sorry," Drew tells her. "You were bleed ing everywhere, and I wasn't sure if I'd done it right, and I accidentally let it out." Before he can continue rambling, May gets off the bed again and hugs him. "Don't worry," she tells him. "I'm not angry at you. Arceus knows I'd have probably shouted something similar if it was you in that position." Drew looks at her confusedly. "Then what are you angry at?" May picks up the paper again. "These fucking vultures!" she replies angrily. "Now that they know this, they're going to be even more invasive with their questions than before." Seeing the look of confusion on Drew's face, May adds, "That's what me and Ash call reporters, and I think Iris has started doing the same."
Drew walks over to her and sits next to her on the bed. "Hey, listen," he says. "I don't care what they say about me. As long as I'm with you, that's all that matters." May smiles at this and hugs him, which he returns. "You're right," she says. "I'm just worried about what sort of lies the media might spin in order to sell papers or get clicks online." Drew nods at this, trying to think of a way to stop May from worrying. "Hey, maybe they won't try to spin lies about us," says Drew. "After all, Ammon having been poisoned by a big oil tycoon would probably sell more papers than the actual truth, but they never spun that story did they?" May shakes her head. "Probably because Ammon and some of his PRA friends would make sure that's removed if they did." Drew nods. "And what's stopping you from doing the same thing if they lie about us?" he asks. May thinks about this, then smiles. "I suppose that's true," she admits. "Thanks for that. I needed it." "anytime," Drew replies.
Their little moment together is interrupted by May's phone ringing. She sighs and picks it up, expecting some journalist asking for an interview in regards to her new relationship with Drew. But instead, she finds Brendan's caller I.D on her screen. "Hey Brendan," she says. "Something happened with Team Terra and you need me to check it out, don't you?" "How did you know?" he asks. May can't help but laugh a little bit. "Because ever since I've gotten these powers figured out, I've become people's errand girl for Team Terra related antics. I literally just ran halfway across the region to inform Ammon that the attack on him wasn't by Abaddon. Anyway, what do you need. Was my brother attacked again?" Brendan laughs a bit himself. "Right on the money I'm afraid," he replies. "He and some of his friends were attacked in Lilycove. I managed to protect them by rousing the city to fight back, but I think there might be a base nearby."
May feels her anger rise at this. Any idea where they are?" she asks. "Unfortunately I don't," Brendan replies. "If I did, I'd go in there myself. But, I'm trying to keep up with all of the attacks they've been doing recently. They're planning something, I don't know what it is. So, I'd like you to see if you can find a base near Lilycove, and report what you find back to me." May looks at Drew, then sighs. "Alright, I'll do it." Brendan makes an audible sound of relief at this. "Thanks May," he says. "I appreciate it. I'll return the favour, I swear." May thanks him, then ends the call. She turns to her bags and begins packing them up. "We going somewhere?" Drew asks. May wants to tell him that it'll only be her heading in. But then she remembers the promise she made to him. "We're heading to Lilycove," she tells him. He nods, then starts packing his own bags.
They're staying in a hotel in Mauville, where Ammon made his announcement. In order to get to Lilycove as fast as they can, Drew summons his Flygon, and he and May ride it all the way to Lilycove. It still takes a week to get there, so by the time they arrived at the city, Max and Bonnie have already left. Disappointed that she missed her brother again, May begins asking around town to see where he and Bonnie went, and learns that they're aiming for Sootopolis next. She decides to head there next, once she's finished in Lilycove. Hopefully she can catch up with Max before he reaches Sootopolis. Maybe if she sticks with him, she can learn what Team Terra wants with him. But for now, she needs to figure out where Team Terra's base is. If there even is one nearby.
Once she's gathered enough info about her brother's whereabouts, she and Drew start asking around again. This time, they ask about which direction Team Terra went when they retreated. This time, they got a more vague answer. Since it was a week ago, and there was a group of them, a lot of people had different accounts of which way they left. But, they all agreed that the team fled roughly in a South-Easternly direction. With that settled, the couple race of in that direction. They keep going until they come to some cliffs. "Each base I've ransacked has been inside of a cliff," May explains. "So, all we need to do is search these cliffs until we find it." Drew nods, then the pair begin their search.
They end up spending most of the day searching those cliffs for the base. But, nothing turns up. Soon enough, evening begins to fall, and they've searched most of the cliffs, but they can't find a single shred of evidence that Team Terra so much as walked past here. "Maybe we're searching the wrong cliffs?" Drew wonders. May shakes her head. "I don't think there are anymore cliffs in the direction we were pointed," she replies. "Hmm, maybe they changed direction after a while. Or, maybe since Lilycove is by the sea, they escaped into a submarine or boat?" Seeing that his girlfriend is in her own head, trying to figure out what happened to the agents of Team Terra, Drew decides to leave her alone for a bit to figure it out. While she does that, he wanders away, to give her a bit more space in case she gets angry and wants to smash something. As he does, he spots something odd through a gap in the trees. Stepping closer to it, he gasps as he realises it's a ruin of an old house. "Hey May!" he calls. "I found something you should see!"
When May hears his voice, she snaps out of her train of thought, right as she felt she was about to make a breakthrough. Slightly annoyed by this, May walks up to him to find out what he wants. Once she sees what he's calling her about, her complaints die in her throat. It's a ruined house, but there's more to it. It doesn't feel abandoned. It feels lived in. "What are the chances that the reason we couldn't find their base in the cliffs is because they never hid it in the cliffs?" Drew asks. "Drew," May replies. "You're a genius." Drew blushes at this as May kisses his cheek. Then, the two of them run to the house to investigate it. Now with a much smaller and clearer target to search, the pair find the entrance to the base in no time. May spots a large ruined pillar of rock that looks like it was once the frame of a door. She pushes it, and feels it move. With Drew's help, the pair push it aside and reveal a staircase down. May hands her bag to Drew and quickly pulls on her Blaziken Mask costume. "Hide out in the bushes, and don't come in," she instructs him. "If I'm not back in an hour, call the police." Drew looks hesitant, but nods and slinks off into the bushes. May waits until he's out of sight, then begins running down the stairs into this base.
Like all the other bases she's raided before, there's nothing much to see when she first enters it. She arrives in a hidden dungeon that are usually found in massive houses in fantasy stories. "Never thought I'd see the day where I enter one of those," May mutters to herself. "Please don't have any traps." She continues along the passage, keeping out of sight of any guards that wander past. True she could just attack them, but she doesn't want to worry Drew. So, she sticks to the shadows as much as possible, only physically attacking agents if she absolutely has to. As she wanders through this dungeon-like basement, she checks inside every room she comes across, hoping to find something on Team Terra's schemes. The first few doors she comes across have nothing of interest inside them. Mostly, they're just armouries. Still, when she gets to those, she uses her Blaziken Mask powers to smash them to bits.
Eventually, after a bit more searching, she comes across what looks to be a laboratory. After making sure there's no one inside, she creeps into it. Immediately, she scrambles up a support beam and climbs onto the rafters, just in case someone comes in while she's snooping. She summons Beautifly and orders her to use String Shot on the mask again. Once it's firmly on her face, she begins crawling along the rafters, trying to get a good look at the room. She spots several documents on some of the tables, as well as a bunch of machines all over the room. Unfortunately, she can't get a good look at what's written on the documents, because she's too high up. So, she takes a good look around the room instead, and spots a broom in the corner. Getting an idea, she silently hops down from the rafters and quietly steps over to the broom. She grabs it, then pushes it up against the door handle, preventing anyone from entering the room. Once that's sorted, she turns back over to the documents on the desks, and begins to read through them.
Back up at the house, Drew begins to grow worried. It's been half an hour since May went into the Team Terra base, and she hasn't come back out yet. Drew begins to worry that she had been captured. But, he promised to wait an hour, so that's what he'll do. But then, he spots something in the distance. A truck, full of people. It doesn't take a genius to notice that they're agents of Team Terra. Drew takes a risk and sneaks closer to them. Thankfully, he's wearing a green jumper, so he's able to camouflage himself in the foliage. He gets close enough to spot Sub-Admin S leading them towards the hole, and she's got a radio in her hand. "So, you can confirm she's in there?" she asks. Another voice comes through the radio, but Drew can't make it out. "Good, so she took the bait then," S replies. "Now, it's time for our end." With a horrible lurch, Drew realises that she's talking about May. She'd walked right into a trap!
Drew wants to get their attention and get them away from the entrance, but he has no means of fighting them. He doesn't have May's fire powers, and he doesn't have enough pokémon to fight all of these agents himself. So, all he can do is sit there and watch as Sub-Admin S turns to the other agents. "Smoke her out!" she orders. "Teach her a lesson on snooping!" The agents salute, then charge into the base, with S following behind them. Drew watches them go, panicking about May's fate. He has to do something. Praying her phone is on vibrate, Drew tries to call her to let her know of the impending danger.
May stares at the page in front of her. She can't quite make out what it says, but it seems very important. It seems to be some sort of geographical map, charting different pathways along the mountains and valleys of Hoenn. However, checking her map reveals that almost none of those routes align with pathways in the region itself. But, they seem to lead towards Larousse, which leads May to believe they may be tunnels. She stuffs the page in her bag, then starts searching around the room for some way to decipher it. As she searches, she feels her phone vibrate. "Not now Max," she whispers to herself, choosing to let it ring and focuses on her search unaware of the danger she's in.
"Come on pick up pick up pick up!" Drew mutters as he stares at his ringing phone. But unfortunately, the call goes to voicemail. He swears, then goes to call her again, before deciding against it. He needs to get in there and warn her. But how? He has no powers, not nearly enough pokémon, and no way to disguise himself. At least, not at first. He's summoned Roserade to create a more secure cover for himself. She's taken a bunch of leaves and reorganised them to keep him hidden from Team Terra's eyes. Looking around himself, he suddenly has an idea. He picks Roserade up, and hides her under his jumper. "Remember what we did in Larousse bud?" he asks. He feels Roserade nod, then strap herself to him. Drew feels vines crawl up his neck and cover his face with a giant leaf. He pulls his hood over himself, then steps towards the entrance. "Roserade, Vine Whip, right arm," he order. He stretches out his right arm, and Roserade shoots a Vine Whip out of his sleeve. "Now left." Roserade does the same with his left. He grins to himself. "Hopefully this works," he mutters to himself, then he runs down the passage.
Like with May, he doesn't run in guns blazing. He and Roserade won't be able to handle an all out fight with the hordes on agents within these walls. Instead, he sneaks behind the troop that are charging after May. In order to avoid being seen, he uses Roserade's vines to cling to the ceiling using the rafters. He follows behind these agents as they make their way to where May is. As he does, he hears them talking. "Are you sure she's still in the lab?" Sub Admin S asks an agent. "Positive," the agent replies. "We removed most of the important documents, while still leaving enough to entice her to stick around and snoop." A wicked grin appears on S's face. "Good job," she says. "What documents did you leave behind?" The agent looks a bit nervous at this. "Eh, the geo-map," he replies.
S stops in her tracks. "THE GEO-MAP!?" she exclaims. "We took any means of understanding it with us!" the agent hastily adds. "So, she'll be left scrambling around the room, looking for a means to decipher it." S still looks apprehensive, but no longer looks like she's planning on blowing up this base herself for their incompetence. Drew quietly orders Roserade to speed up the vines to allow him to get to May first. He silently swings over them, making sure to avoid being seen. From there, he quickly drops to the ground, then sneaks towards the lab. When he gets there, he sees that almost all of the agents have shown up, and are standing outside of the door into what Drew assumes is the lab. He watches from the shadows as they subtly try to open the door, but it doesn't budge. Realising that this means that May has blocked the door, Drew begins to try to think of another way through. Looking around, he notices a small vent that seems to lead into the lab. "No way," he thinks to himself. "There's no way something that cliché will work."
"Holy crap something that cliché actually worked!" Drew struggles through the vent, which was too big for him and Roserade, but just the right fit for the two of them if they were separated. Once he's through the vent, Roserade hops back into his hoodie and reforms the mask. Then, he jumps down into the lab. May hears this and wheels around, Blaziken out and fists glowing with flame. "What the?!" she exclaims. Then, her voice changes, becoming unrecognisable. "Who are you!? What are you doing here!?" "May, it's me!" Drew replies, as Roserade drops the leaf mask down a bit. "Drew?" May asks, as Blaziken lets out a small jet of flame from his mouth. "What are you doing here?" "I came to warn you," Drew replies. "This whole place is a trap! They knew you were coming. They've got a small army outside that door! I tried to call you to tell you, but you didn't pick up." May went a bit red at this. "Sorry about that," she replies. "I thought it was Max calling me about something, so I ignored it. But take a look at what I found!"
Before she can show her, the door bangs, as agents try to burst through the door. "We need to go!" he tells her, before turning to the vent. "No time to crawl through there!" May replies, her voice back in the gravely sound. "Stay behind me! I'll cover you!" "I can help you fight," Drew replies, as his mask is regrown over his face. Before May can ask how, the door bursts open, and agents storm in. May ignites her fists, but Drew is way ahead of her. He launches his left arm out, sending a Vine Whip flying out of his sleeve. it slams into three guards, sending them flying into the wall. Everyone else stares with a stunned expression, while May takes the opportunity to knock a few people out with her fists. "Come on!" she says to Drew. "We need to leave!" Drew nods, and the two make their way out of the base.
As they run, May hits all of the support beams and rafters she can reach, and Drew pulls down some of the others with Roserade's vines. Eventually, as they begin to reach the entrance, they do enough damage to the structure that it begins to fall apart. All around them, Team Terra agents abandoned the chase to find other ways out of the base. The couple comes to the entrance of the base, and begin running up the stairs. As they do, the crumbling of the building begins to catch up with them. Thinking quickly, Drew has Roserade shoot her vines out of both of his sleeves, latching on to the entrance of the base. Then, he has May grab onto him, and Roserade launches them out of the base. They land on the ground and take a moment to catch their breaths, before setting off back to Lilycove.
"So, this is what they're planning?" Drew asks. The two of them sit at a booth and look at the geo-map that May took from the lab. May took her mask and cape off and stuffed them in her bag, while Drew had Roserade detach from him. May nods, looking at the piece of paper. "I have no idea what it is," she replies. "It seems to be some sort of map, but the pathways don't match up with any of the routes on a regular map. For another, they seem to all head towards, or away from, Larousse." Drew looks at the map. "Do you think they're tunnelling into the city?" he asks. "Maybe," May replies. "But I can't think of how this would work. They'd have to dig under the water." Drew nods. "They'd have to get through solid limestone to do it," he agrees.
The two of them continue to stare at it, trying to think of ways to decipher it. "Maybe we could keep investigating bases?" Drew asks. "One of them might have the means to decipher it." May nods half-heartedly, not fully sure about that. "Ugh, this would be a lot easier if we were experts in geology!" Drew complains. Suddenly, May snaps up. "Drew," she says. "You're a genius!" "I am?" he asks. May nods, standing up and pulling out her phone. "We know two experts in geology," she explains, taking a picture of the geo-map. "And best of all, they're a married couple!" Drew suddenly realises where May is going with this. "Oh!" he exclaims. "You're thinking of them?" May nods, as she texts an old friend. "Yep," she replies, as if she read his mind. "I'm sure if anyone can figure this out, it's Brock!"
So this ended up coming out on Sunday instead. Man, I've got to work through this writer's block, because it is hard to write chapters with it. But hey, Brock's coming back. I recently realised that he hasn't appeared since the first half of the story, and he played a pretty important role in that part, so it'd be a shame to completely leave him by the wayside, especially since he's one of my favourite characters. As for whether or not that will be the next chapter, I have no idea. We'll just have to wait and see on (hopefully) Tuesday. See you then.
