Brendan looked curiously toward Slateport City from atop Drift’s back as they floated sedately towards the dock. He patted Drift gratefully. Their journey had been arduous, with the large relicanth putting in most of the work. Fewer islands existed between Dewford and Slateport than between Dewford and the western coast. Unlike their prior island hopping route, most of the days of travel were spent on the back of Drift as she navigated the waves, only stopping for the night at the few intermediate islands there were. The rest of his team, barring Rogue who could swim alongside sometimes, had been mostly cooped up in their balls, and both he and they were looking forward to being on dry land for the foreseeable future.
They followed calmly in the wake of a small ferry as Brendan took in the city. As the most prominent port in Hoenn, the city was quite large, with most of it taken up by the extensive docks. The port took in all the goods headed for central Hoenn, and most of the travelers from other regions made call here, so there was an eclectic array of peoples and influences in the city. There were plentiful tourists around; Hoenn’s warm climate and tropical beaches brought in many visitors from dreary Johto and Kanto.
Brendan had Drift swim up to the side of one of the currently unused piers. He returned Drift and clambered atop the concrete landing, blending into the crowd of tourists. Slateport was a unique mixture of busy port town and resort city, and at first impression Brendan found he didn’t care much for it. There were way too many people for his taste, and being jostled around in a crowd was not to his liking. It soured his mood so much that he ended his exploration of the town early and headed straight for the Pokemon Center.
Like everywhere else in the port town, the Pokemon Center was packed, teeming with native trainers and travelers alike. Eventually Brendan was able to rent a room and give his team to a very overworked Nurse Joy for a checkup. Later that afternoon as he was leaving the lounge area, he noticed a small flyer on the board advertising a local tournament happening the next day, celebrating the opening of the Oceanic Museum there in Slateport. The prize wasn’t anything special, but it interested Brendan. It would give him and his team some more practice battling in front of a crowd, and in a tournament format. Brendan was also just excited by the prospect of participating in an official tournament, small or not.
He quickly signed up for the tourney with his pokedex, sighing in relief when he noticed he snagged the last open position. Excited, he went out to one of the training rooms to tell his team about the tournament, as Glimmer was a bit too big to fit in his rented room, unfortunately. They reacted pretty much as expected, with Lurantis, Rogue, and Dancer very excited, raring to compete. Sentry was more reserved, it gave its excitement away, though, by focusing all three of its eyes on Brendan as he explained. He was unsure if Glimmer really understood the concept of a tournament, but she was excited because the others were, causing her crystals to shine intermittently.
They spent the rest of the evening doing some light training. He had Dancer working on calm mind ever since Brawly had shown him its potential, and she was making good progress. Lurantis was working on mastering x-scissor and night slash, to good effect. Sentry worked tirelessly on electro ball, honing its control in preparation to learn the far harder zap cannon. He was still getting Glimmer used to battles; she had power and versatility in spades, and her control was nothing to sneeze at. She needed a firm hand during battle though. Brendan wanted to make sure all the moves she knew were already mastered to his specifications before starting on anything new.
Rogue was having the most trouble of the group; he had hit a wall on learning most new moves until he evolved, and his muscle mass growth had stalled for the same reasoning. It continued to be a source of frustration for the normally rambunctious water-type, and had caused him to start acting out a bit during training. That evening he’d been fairly subdued, working with night slash on channeling dark-type energy in preparation for his long-awaited evolution.
The next morning, Brendan walked towards the newly built Oceanic Museum alongside Lurantis. It took them a little longer to get there than he’d planned, as Lurantis’ resplendent colors and patterns drew the attention of quite a few children. They mobbed the confused grass-type, oohing and ahhing. Brendan would have found the circumstances funny if not for the fact he knew that Lurantis disliked being touched outside of battle. He took pity on his friend and recalled him away from the throng of grabby children, making his own quick escape before they could demand the return of the “pretty flower man.”
When Brendan eventually made it to the museum, he saw a fairly rudimentary arena built in front of the new museum, surrounded by bleachers. There was a good sized crowd, a few hundred all told. After the check in, an aide showed him where to stand with the other competitors. There were sixteen trainers, including him, and they mostly seemed to be younger rookies. The only standouts were an old man with greying hair and a red haired boy about Brendan’s age that was dripping with contempt as he stared balefully at anyone who tried to approach him. He merely stood, fiddling with his pokedex as they waited for the event to start.
At the appointed time, Captain Stern, a local oceanographer and founder of the new museum, stepped out in front of the crowd to start the event.
“Welcome all! We’re here to celebrate the opening of the Slateport Oceanic Museum, my own passion project. And what better way to inaugurate this fantastic project than to sponsor a showing from our local trainers? Sixteen fine young trainers are here to battle, and show the fruits of their effort. Let’s have a hand for them. They’ll pair off for three rounds of 1-on-1 battles, and the two remaining at the end will battle in the finals 3-on-3.”
Brendan listened closely as the man listed off the rules of the event, cutting his eyes to the other trainers as he thought about which he would battle first. Eventually his name was called as the tourney commenced.
“Brendan Yuki on the red side, vs Riley Jacobs on the blue side!”
Hearing his name called, he walked slowly to his side of the field, analyzing the other trainer as he went. The other boy looked younger than Brendan, clearly a rookie trainer who’d started this year or the year before. Brendan considered his options as he stared at the other boy.
“Red trainer will release first!” chimed the referee.
Making his choice, Brendan released Glimmer out on the field. She appeared and shrunk back towards him as the roar of the crowd hit her sensitive ears. He tried to comfort the large rock-type.
“Hey, girl. Easy, easy. It’s alright, just try to ignore the yelling. Focus on me.”
With his soothing Glimmer slowly calmed down, though she still flinched every time the crowd cheered. The other trainer, Riley, looked at Glimmer and then released his own pokemon, a nuzleaf. As the referee called a start to the battle, Brendan started giving orders immediately; he knew that Glimmer would need extra guidance with the distraction of the crowd, and he wanted to take the initiative against the nuzleaf, who had a strong advantage against Glimmer.
“Stealth rocks, ring them around you, girl.”
In response to his command, Glimmer’s crystals lit up, and a dozen or so small pointed stones ripped free of the ground, forming a floating circular barrier of stones around her. Riley wasted no time in commanding his nuzleaf either, though.
“Pepper it with razor leaves, Leafy!” he dramatically announced, pointing for further effect. The whole thing was so corny, as if it were out of the old Super Pokemon Sentai cartoons he used to love, that Brendan nearly forgot to command Glimmer. Nearly.
“Pull up a wall with rock tomb.”
Glimmer stabbed her two front legs into the ground and a large boulder rose up in front of her, taking the brunt of the razor leaves that bit deeply into its surface. Brendan took a page from Roxanne’s playbook that he’d taken note of during their battle.
“Shatter it, rock slide with the shards.”
Glimmer roared gleefully; this was her favorite maneuver to practice. She thrust a leg at the boulder she’d raised, shattering it into many smaller pieces that flew out as a hail of shrapnel towards the nuzleaf. Riley and his nuzleaf were clearly caught off guard, with Riley only able to choke out a hurried “Harden!” before the nuzleaf was showered with the rock slide. The storm of rocks crashed into the grass-type, battering it heavily and leaving behind quite a few cuts. Before it could recover, at Riley’s frantic urging, Brendan ordered Glimmer to take it out.
“Power Gem, Glimmer”
She rumbled, quieter this time, and focused energy into one of the crystals lining her midsection. It glimmered in the sunlight, then a vivid orange beam lanced from it towards the downed nuzleaf, knocking it unconscious. Riley’s face fell, stricken, and Glimmer approached the nuzleaf curiously, unused to her sparring partners falling so quickly. As she nudged the unconscious grass-type, the other trainer snapped out of his shock and quickly recalled the fallen pokemon, shooting Brendan and Glimmer a venomous look as he nearly sprinted away. Brendan patted Glimmer and promised her some berries later before recalling her. He listened to the announcer call out his win as he walked back to the competitor area.
He won his next battle nearly as easily, sending out Rogue versus his opponent’s vulpix. Rogue took out most of his frustrations on the unsuspecting fire-type, leaving Brendan at a loss as the announcer labelled his pokemon as “vicious.” While Rogue could definitely be described that way, Brendan was insulted on Glimmer’s behalf; she was as gentle as a 400 pound rock behemoth could be.
The red-haired boy and the older man won their battles with little difficulty as well. So far, the older man had relied solely on his insanely powerful simipour. It had taken out his first two opponents with a hydro pump each. The red-haired boy however, had used a golbat that was well-trained enough to operate during the day with minimal difficulty, along with a croconaw that truly deserved being described as vicious. The last trainer in the semifinals was an aspiring poison-specialist who’d barely squeaked by the prior rounds. Brendan knew he could beat him, but made a note to be wary of tiring his pokemon out excessively with the poison.
Soon enough, the matchups for the semifinal round were announced.
“Brendan Yuki on the red side, versus Mr. Nami on the blue side!”
That made his choice of pokemon very easy, he thought as he returned to the red side of the field. The older man took up the opposite side, still smiling serenely.
“Blue trainer will release first!”
Brendan relaxed minutely at that, and waited patiently for the other man to release. As expected, he released that monster of a simipour. Brendan wasted no time in response and released Lurantis. His starter materialized on the field and chirped in delight at the sunny weather, his coloring becoming even more vivid as he absorbed sunlight.
The referee called the start of the battle, and just as in his last two battles, the old man’s simipour quickly sent a tightly-focused hydro pump towards his opponent. Brendan trusted Lurantis’ reflexes, though.
“Straight ahead, double leaf blade.”
Lurantis dashed forward, leaning just far enough to the side to let the jet of water pass him by. He reached the simipour just as it cut off the move and struck out once- twice- with his scythes glowing deep, verdant green. The water-type was thrown backward, heavily wounded by the super effective attacks. The monstrous simipour wasn’t quite done yet, though, as the man called out.
“Waterfall.”
The simipour quickly recovered, then all the water sprayed on the field by its earlier hydro pump gathered near the water-type, forming a column of water that crashed down on Lurantis. The grass-type disappeared from their view for a moment, covered by the torrent of water. As the water cleared away, Lurantis appeared crouched down, cracked earth beneath him as roots kept him from being swept away, thanks to ingrain. Brendan was awed by the scope of the move, but noticed the simipour seemed a bit winded by the expenditure. He called out to his starter.
“Petal Blizzard, finish it!”
Lurantis chirped in response, and all of a sudden, dozens of pink petals appeared, floating on the breeze. He chopped one of his scythes through the air, and the petals shot towards the simipour like razors, leaving it on the ground, unconscious.
The crowd roared in approval, startling Lurantis, who hurried back over next to Brendan. He laughed and patted his starter on the back. The older man, Mr. Nami, nodded at Brendan from across the field, still smiling his serene smile. Brendan nodded back, happy to have a decent battle. A few minutes later he watched the red-haired boy demolish the poison-specialist with his golbat. It seemed he would be Brendan’s opponent for the finals.
While waiting for the field to be restored for the final battle, Brendan approached the red-haired boy.
“Hey man, nice battles out there. It must have taken forever to train your golbat to battle during the day; it looks well-trained.”
The boy just glared at him.
“I’m not here to make friends. You may be better than the rest of the ‘three badge and outs’ around here, but you’re still weak.” he said, voice dripping with contempt.
Brendan was taken aback at the sheer vitriol, and was about to respond angrily, but they were called out for the battle at that moment. He decided to just let it go and prove himself in their battle. He listened to the announcer as the battle was starting.
“And for our final battle we have two excellent trainers here! Brendan Yuki of Littleroot town on the red side, and Silver of Kanto here on the blue side. Unlike the prior matches, this will be a 3-on-3. Red side trainer will release first.”
Brendan thought through his options, eventually choosing to release Sentry. Of Silver’s pokemon shown thus far, Sentry should have the advantage. He could see the other boy frown in contemplation, before throwing out a new pokemon, a huge ursaring. Brendan frowned; ursaring could be troublesome. They were quite powerful, with a versatile moveset, and very ill-tempered. He and Sentry would have to play this carefully.
At the start of the battle he ordered Sentry to set up its barriers. A sharp word from Silver caused the ursaring to bellow in rage and stomp towards Sentry, fists wreathed in the flames of fire punch. The normal-type moved much quicker than Sentry could fly, unfortunately, and Brendan called out another order.
“Electroweb, tangle it up!”
Sentry quickly formed the net of electricity, launching it towards the charging ursaring. Silver called out a counter promptly, though.
“Rock-tomb, block it. Go below.”
The ursaring slammed its hands on the ground, causing a thin sheet of rock to jut up from the earth. The electroweb impacted on the rock, shattering it into many pieces. As the dust cleared, though, all that could be seen was a hole in the ground where ursaring stood before. Brendan was confused for a moment before realising the danger.
“Below you Sentry! Bomb it!”
Sentry caught his hurried command, dropping a hastily-formed magnet bomb right below itself, and then attempting to fly away. It was too slow, though, as the ursaring burst up from the ground below, taking the magnet bomb explosion head-on, but also striking Sentry with a blow that carved right through its barriers.
Sentry was launched away, the ground move inhibiting its control of electricity for a moment. The slightly hurt ursaring stalked after it, fists still blazing with fire punch. Brendan was a bit desperate, knowing Sentry’s electric moves would be a bit unsteady.
“Flash Mirror!”
The grounded Sentry flashed brilliantly, blinding the normal-type, though the follow-up mirror shot barely moved the behemoth. The ursaring flailed around blindly, letting Sentry gradually regain control of its electricity, until Silver snapped out another command.
“Stop! Tantrum.”
The ursaring stilled in response to the barked order, before leaping upwards and slamming its leg into the arena. The ground shattered, causing pieces of earth to shoot out in a circle around the normal-type. Sentry was able to stop the shrapnel with its newly-reformed barriers, but that gave away its position to the still blinded ursaring.
“Hammer arm. Finish it.”
Brendan blanched as he heard that command. Sentry wouldn’t be able to withstand that, and was still a bit wobbly in the air, dashing any hope of evading. Brendan grit his teeth and gave the order to do as much damage as possible.
“Electro Ball, series.”
Sentry whirred, forming several electro balls that orbited the magneton. It’d completed the last of them when the ursaring reached it, arm a blur as it hammered the electric-type. Sentry collapsed, but not before sending the electro balls to explode on the ursaring. The orbs of electricity exploded one-by-one on the normal-type, scorching its fur and inflicting heavy spasms from the leftover electricity.
Brendan looked at the unconscious Sentry with a frown. The battle had gone poorly so far; that ursaring was much more troublesome than anticipated, and Brendan was kicking himself mentally for his mistakes. He chose his next pokemon carefully, releasing Dancer to the field.
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“It took out Sentry. It should be paralyzed and wounded, though. Be cautious, it's got a wide pool of tricks.” he murmured to Dancer. She nodded, letting out a low cry and slowly empowering her body with psychic energy.
As the battle recommenced, the ursaring no longer was as aggressive, staying in one place with a wary eye on the meditite. Brendan was loath to let Dancer approach the wily pokemon, though, so attempted to draw it out.
“Psybeam.”
A multicolored prismatic beam sprang from Dancer’s outstretched hand, impacting the ursaring, causing it to roar in pain. After a few more hits like that, Brendan assumed the ursaring was on its last legs.
“Finish it off, Dancer. Force Palm!”
Dancer rushed towards the wounded ursaring, palm shining with power. Just as she was about to reach the normal-type, Brendan noticed Silver smirk.
“Hmph, idiot. Facade!”
The ursaring roared, covered in a corona of white energy, and channeled the residual electricity causing its spasms into an attack. It easily overwhelmed Dancer’s force palm, and crashed devastatingly into her. She was thrown into the psychic barriers around the arena by the attack, and was seriously injured. The ursaring collapsed from its last ditch attack, but had done its job by beating Sentry and nearly doing the same to Dancer.
Brendan clenched his fists angrily, he should have seen something like that coming. Silver wasn’t the type of trainer to leave out an obviously helpless pokemon without a plan to take advantage of it. He looked at Dancer, who got to her feet painfully. She saluted at him, signalling her intent to continue to battle, and started to meditate. Brendan relaxed minutely; she was quite hurt, but should be able to recover a slight bit through her meditation.
Silver smirked at him from across the field, releasing his golbat as his second pokemon. The huge bat seemed to take after its master as it leered at Dancer upon materializing. The battle began in earnest again, with Silver taking the initiative.
“Circle around, air cutters.”
The golbat hissed in anticipation, then took to the skies, flying in a circular pattern around the meditating Dancer. It started to flap its wings harshly at regular intervals, launching razor-sharp winds at her. Dancer could dodge such telegraphed moves in her sleep, however. Brendan made a plan.
“Mind Reader, then Calm mind. When you’re done, jump kick.”
She continued to dodge the blades of wind by inches, and slowly honed her focus to the peak, utilizing calm mind in the manner unique to meditite. Silver seemed content to continue the stalemate, perhaps assuming that the wounded Dancer would run out of energy before golbat did. If he knew anything about meditite he wouldn’t have made that assumption, though. Meditite were an endless well of psychic energy, with their only limiter being how focused they had to be to use it effectively.
Eventually, at some unseen signal, Dancer’s form was outlined in a soft blue glow. She crouched down after dodging another blade of wind, then leapt upwards like a rocket toward the flying golbat, glowing foot outstretched. She swung her leg down like an axe, slamming the surprised golbat downwards to land heavily on the ground. Landing lightly on the ground after it, Dancer rushed in, pummeling the downed pokemon with laser-tight focus. Silver was caught off guard for once, angrily shouting at the golbat.
“Get out of there, idiot!”
The golbat was unable to escape from the relentless blows of Dancer, though. Each psychically-assisted strike caused painful spasms in the venom glands of the poison-type, further curtailing its options. Brendan could see Silver sigh and call out.
“Toxic Bomb.”
Brendan didn’t have time to tell Dancer to get away, before the golbat vomited a noxious purple explosion of sludge, covering both of them and that side of the field in it. The golbat fainted straight away from the strain, but the damage had been done. Brendan could see the poison, that he was fairly sure was toxic from the name, start to affect Dancer.
He sighed in disappointment, then recalled her, forfeiting her for the rest of the match. Toxic was an insanely complicated poisonous mixture, and could do untold damage to a pokemon if left untreated. There was no way he’d let Dancer battle like that.
He realized they were down to their last pokemon as Silver released a lithe, dangerous-looking weavile. Brendan frowned at that, he was hoping the other trainer would use his croconaw, giving Lurantis an advantage. He could use Glimmer or Rogue, but Glimmer lacked the experience and Rogue lacked the oomph to take on this foe. Lurantis was his best option, but would still be at a bit of a disadvantage. He released his starter.
“Hey, bud. You’re my last pokemon, and that weavile is his last. You’re both fresh so this should be a tough battle.”
Lurantis chirped confidently, his colors deepening in the sun. The weavile sprung into action as the last round started, spewing an icy wind that lowered the temperature in the arena quite a bit. Brendan cursed; the low temperatures would interfere with Lurantis’ movement and reflexes, as grass-types were quite vulnerable to the low temperatures ice techniques brought.
“Ingrain, Flood the area with petals.” Brendan ordered in response.
Lurantis exploded in a storm of pink petals, replicating his favored technique as a fomantis, only with petals instead of leaves. He faded into pink, using his natural camouflage to blend in. The weavile was well-trained, however, not rushing into the storm of petals, merely waiting patiently for orders.
“Foresight, then ice beam.”
The weavile let out a weak wave of darkness, utilizing it as a strange form of echolocation as it impacted on the hidden Lurantis. Upon finding him, it fired several icy beams towards his location. Lurantis was able to dodge one, but the cold slowed him down, causing the second beam to hit. He chirped in pain, and had to shed several leaves that were frozen over.
Following the ice beams, the weavile sprung forward, dashing towards the revealed Lurantis with a night slash. Silver yelled at it angrily to stop, while Brendan called out to his friend.
“Counter with x-scissor. Don’t let it back away!”
The weavile slashed down with its claws brimming with dark energy. Lurantis’ scythes glowed light green as it clashed an x-scissor with the weavile’s night slash, overwhelming the dark-type. Lurantis swung his scythes at the retreating weavile, elegantly cutting off its avenues of escape. Weavile was quick, but was not built for a standing fight, and so fell into disadvantage quickly in the melee with Lurantis, taking several wounds from the x-scissor.
Silver angrily barked out, “Take it, avalanche!” as Lurantis was about to land another strike. The weavile threw its arms behind, forming a large spike of ice. It took the blow from Lurantis, but then latched on to the grass-type, swinging him around onto the spike with his own momentum.
The super-effective attack left Lurantis stunned for a moment, allowing the weavile to escape the melee, returning to its preferred hit-and-run tactics. It pelted Lurantis with ice shards and icicle spears, utilizing its mastery of quick attack to evade any counters from the grass-type.
Eventually Brendan called a new order, desperate to find some kind of advantage to stop slowly losing.
“Solar beam!”
Lurantis charged the beam in record time, nearly instantly unleashing the powerful move and bathing the arena in solar energy. As the light dimmed, the field was revealed, with weavile standing in a dome of protect that had nearly cracked open, but ultimately held on. It lowered the shield, and sent a final ice beam flying at the exhausted Lurantis, toppling the grass-type.
Brendan was numb as he recalled his starter, barely noticing the victorious smirk directed at him by Silver. He stood through the end of the tournament on autopilot, not listening to Captain Stern as he praised their battles and awarded the top 4 a small cash prize. Finally he came back to himself as the crowd started to leave and Silver turned to him.
“Like I said, you’re weak. You should quit now while you’re only slightly behind me. You treat your pokemon too softly, they’ll never get powerful that way.” the other boy sneered as he spoke, leaving Brendan alone with his failure in the arena.
As he walked slowly back to the Pokemon Center, Brendan reflected on his loss. He was no stranger to losing. His first few months on the road were filled with so many losses to veteran trainers that he wasn’t certain that his official win-loss record would ever recover. So why did this loss sting so badly? Silver wasn’t a veteran trainer with vast experience; Brendan could have won their match. Perhaps that was the difference. His only losses until now had been to vastly more experienced trainers that he’d not had any hope of beating. He could look back on the battle with Silver and pinpoint quite a few mistakes he’d made that could have won him the battle had he not made them. After his pokemon were healed by Nurse Joy, he went out to an unused training field and released his team.
“Hey team. The tournament is over. We lost. Silver beat us in the final match. You all did the best I could have asked for, I screwed up. I should have anticipated some of his moves, and guided you all better.”
He sat there, eyes downcast as he didn’t want to see the judgement in his friends’ eyes. He felt a light tap on his head and looked up to see Rogue shaking his head at him. He started to apologize, but Rogue tapped him again, harder this time.
“Hey! What gives?”
Rogue rolled his eyes at him and pointed to the rest of the team. He looked over to see Lurantis holding a berry out to him. Dancer pointed to him and mimed being hit, then getting up. Sentry levitated his pokedex, turning it on to the page where Brendan had listed out his goals for the future, and Glimmer nuzzled up against him, sensing his sadness.
He was stunned for a second, then laughed, taking the berry from Lurantis.
“You’re right, guys. Can’t let this one loss affect me. We’ll just have to do better from now on. Get ready, training is gonna amp up.” he exclaimed with a gleam in his eye.
Rogue cheered at that, Glimmer roaring along with him, unaware really of what was happening. As he watched his team fondly, Brendan felt lucky to have them. He felt a renewed drive after they cheered him up, and he launched into brainstorming some new training ideas with Rogue. He spent the rest of the afternoon with his team like that.
That evening before dinner he returned to his room at the Pokemon Center, only to find May outside his room waiting. He almost turned around and walked away but he noticed she didn’t look like she wanted to yell at him again, so he just stood there waiting. She looked up at him awkwardly for a long moment before breaking the silence.
“Hey Brendan, can we talk?”
Well. That’s new, he thought. Slowly nodding, Brendan let May into his room, where she sat stiffly on one of the chairs. He offered her some water while he set up Sentry in the charging station he rented for the room. He sat in a chair opposite her, noting that she would look anywhere but at him.
“Um, I saw you at that tournament earlier today. You did really well.” she offered. Brendan’s knuckles whitened as he gripped his mug tightly, thinking of his loss.
“Yeah, whatever. I screwed up that last battle pretty badly.” he snorted.
“No, really! You did great, I was really impressed. I was nowhere near as good as you this soon into my training.” She exclaimed, standing up for emphasis.
Brendan looked up at her, surprised by the outburst. She sat down again quickly, cheeks red with embarrassment.
“A-anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I came to apologize to you.”
Brendan had to stop himself from reeling back in surprise; it was nearly impossible to get May to apologize for anything. Seeing that he wasn’t going to say anything, she continued.
“I talked to Mr. Wattson, and then I went home to see my mom and dad. They, uh, weren’t happy with me.”
Brendan snorted. He could imagine that. If May was a spitfire, she inherited it all from her mother; that woman could throw down with the best of them.
“So, I’m sorry that I threatened you, and tried to make you go home. I still think Uncle Norman probably has good reasons to not want you to be a trainer, but my mom and dad really pounded into me that it’s none of my business.”
She spoke faster and faster as it all came out, as if she couldn’t get it out quick enough.
“Despite that, um, I am glad you’re getting to do what you want now. Can you forgive me?”
Brendan thought that he’d never seen May this contrite. Her mother must have really tore into her this time. He let her stew a bit while he drank his water and thought. He’d never really been too angry at May. While he might have resented her a bit for living his dream while he couldn’t, he really couldn’t blame her for that. In the end, she was still his best friend.
“You’re right, what’s between me and my father is none of your business.”
While he said it quite blandly, he could see her cringe at the implied anger.
“Though, thanks to Wattson, no harm was done. And I do miss my best friend. So, I think I can forgive you.”
Seeing May start to get excited and shout, he interrupted her.
“With some conditions, of course.”
Calming, down but still smiling, she agreed.
“Sure, anything.”
“One: I don’t want you to interfere with my journey. I’ve had my fair share of scrapes so far, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And I know you’d be breathing down my neck the whole time if I didn’t make this clear.”
May didn’t look happy at the condition, but promised regardless.
“Two: Like I said, what is between my father and I is none of your business. That means I don’t want you telling my dad anything about what I’m doing. And Three:”
Brendan grinned at her now.
“Three: You owe me a knock down drag out battle after I earn all 8 badges.”
May laughed at that, and all of a sudden it felt as if they were two years in the past, watching old elite four battle reruns and planning their future teams.
“You got it Brennie! You better get a lot better before then, though. Me and Sceptile won’t hold back!”
He merely smiled and shook his head. He introduced May to the rest of his team, sans Glimmer. She got along well with Dancer, though Rogue and Lurantis were understandably leery still. Sentry was as stoic as ever, watching them from the charging station in the corner. May wanted to meet Glimmer but the room was too small for the exuberant rock type.
They spent the rest of the evening swapping stories about the routes. Brendan left out his scuffles with Team Aqua and Magma, unwilling to open that can of worms when they’d just reconnected. May gave him advice that she’d heard or experienced for herself about his pokemon species, and what she’d noticed in his battle with Silver earlier. Brendan was glad for the advice. All other things said and done, May was an incredible trainer, placing in the Top 64 at the Ever Grande Conference in her first year as a trainer. She hadn’t participated in her second year, preferring to build up her team slowly, but she confided in him that this year she would participate again.
When she left late that evening, she left her pokenav number with him, along with her fathers. Apparently Professor Birch wanted to talk to him about something. He promised to call the man, and to keep in touch. And like that, Hurricane May left.
Emotionally and physically wrung out from the day, Brendan slept deeply until late the next morning. After waking and gathering his team he decided to head towards Mauville. Before he left, though, he wanted to pick up a couple new TMs for his team, as he thought Rogue and Dancer in particular could use a new move to focus on. Lurantis and Sentry had enough to focus on with all the options made available by their evolutions, and Glimmer still needed to hone the moves she already knew.
Browsing the TM stand at the PokeMart, Brendan had to admit that he wanted to buy all of them. He salivated at the thought, but winced upon checking his bank account. Maybe two was enough. He eventually picked out Brick Break for Rogue, and Shadow Ball for Dancer. He also noted that Rogue could learn the TMs for Rock Tomb and Rock Slide. After seeing the combination of the two used by Roxanne, he’d fallen in love with it. Perhaps Glimmer could teach Rogue the moves? He’d have to experiment.
After buying the two TMs and the rest of his supplies, Brendan's wallet was looking quite thin. TMs were the most expensive things most trainers would ever buy, and he looked back at the vouchers he received from Mr. Stone gratefullyThankfully he’d be travelling on a route with plenty of trainers for a few days between Slateport and Mauville. Saying goodbye to the port city, Brendan started the journey towards Mauville.
The route between the two cities wasn’t particularly arduous. It was a well travelled route up the coast, with quite a few trainers going both ways. As always, Brendan and his team challenged any trainer of their badge level or higher, causing the going to be slower than it could have been. The journey was much more relaxing than their last island hopping trek, and the team was glad for the chance to stay out of the pokeballs a bit.
After a fairly forgettable week’s journey, Brendan and his team strode into Mauville once again. He was looking forward to seeing Wattson again, and to planning their next foray towards Fortree City. Sentry hummed along behind him. He’d told the magneton about Wattson, and he could tell the electric type was interested in meeting the old electric master.
Walking into the familiar gym, he was told that Wattson was in the middle of a challenge. Deciding to spectate, Brendan headed to the bleachers. As he sat down he noticed Wattson’s challenger was a familiar red-head. Silver was in the midst of a showdown between his golbat and a young manectric on Wattson’s side.
Watching the battle gave him some more insight into the other boy’s battling style. He was unrelenting in battle; his pokemon used move after move in quick succession in an attempt to keep the initiative and capitalize on it. He wasn’t above some cunning tricks, however, if they had a worthy payoff. The tactic worked, and was clearly well-practiced, but it could also be dangerous. If his pokemon couldn’t secure the initiative or get the knockout early in the battle, then they were open to devastating counters once they’d exhausted themselves. An all or nothing battle style did seem to fit the ornery red-head, though.
It was a good battle in the end. Silver squeaked out a narrow victory, and Brendan could tell that the boy was unhappy with his performance. After receiving his badge from Wattson, Silver left in a hurry, only slowing to sneer at Brendan on the way out. Brendan made his way down from the bleachers as Wattson was applying medicine to the unconscious manectric.
“Ah, Brendan m’boy! I didn’t think you’d be here so quickly.”
The older man was jovial as ever, sweeping Brendan into a hug immediately. Squirming out of the grip after a moment, Brendan replied.
“Nice to see you too Wattson. Slateport didn’t agree with me too much, so I decided to go on and leave early.”
Wattson eyed him with a knowing grin.
“Wahaha, all the people did you in hmm? You’re a little too young to go all hermit on us yet m’boy.”
Brendan blushed brightly.
“Now, last I heard you were planning on entering a tournament there. How did it go?”
Grimacing, Brendan explained what happened.
“Made it to the finals pretty easily, but I lost the final match narrowly. That challenger you just had was the guy who beat me actually, Silver.”
Brendan let out a deep sigh.
“I was really down about it for a while. Looking back there were so many mistakes I made that seem so simple now. My team got my head on straight though; all it means is that next time we’ll do better!”
Wattson gave him a kind smile, slapping him on the back.
“Ohoho that’s the way! You’re only really defeated if you let a loss stop you from getting better.”
A rare frown came over the man then.
“But, Silver, that boy… I can tell he’s troubled. He’s as ruthless as can be to his pokemon, and himself. I know you might not like him, but keep an eye out for him, please? As a favor to this old man.”
Brendan frowned; as far as he could tell that guy was just an asshole, but Wattson had been really good to him. He nodded.
“Sure. If I see him again I’ll try and make friends.”
Wattson smiled gratefully before finally noticing Sentry hovering placidly behind Brendan.
“Oho, this is Sentry then? Nice to meet you, little magneton!”
Sentry bobbed up and down in recognition, and Brendan smiled.
“Yep, it’s been a great teammate so far. It’s a great battler, and helps keep our rowdier teammates in line.”
Brendan and Wattson spent the rest of the afternoon catching up, while Sentry seemed to be content to hang around with Wattson’s magneton, one of his main team. Brendan spent the next few days taking it easy in Mauville, sometimes visiting Wattson, who always had a piece of advice for him or Sentry. Mostly he was planning his trip to Fortree, though.
Brendan stared down at the map of Hoenn displayed on his PokeNav. The main route from Mauville to Fortree ran east from Mauville, then north through the lush jungles of the eastern mainland. While there was nothing wrong with that route, Brendan’s eyes kept being drawn to the north, to the Hoenn Desert. He’d avoided it on his trek to Lavaridge before, and he’d felt it a shame. The pokemon there could be found nowhere else in Hoenn.
There was a route through the desert that ended up near Fortree, though it was much longer than the main route starting from Mauville. It didn’t go too deep into the desert, which was the only reason Brendan was even considering it. He traced the route through the desert with his finger, trying to calculate the time it was likely to take. After a long moment of contemplating he nodded, making his decision. He got up immediately to go buy supplies and desert gear. First things first, though, he’d need a bike suitable for the desert… and some goggles.