The Quest for the Legends

No, you're misunderstanding it. See, people remember Mark, alive. They also remember that a guy was killed at the Pokémon Festival. It's the connection that is buried deeper - his parents don't really remember that it was Mark who died there, and the unconnected people who read about the death and meet him later don't realize that his name and appearance are the same as the guy who was killed, unless they see direct, undeniable evidence, such as in Crater Town where people could look at the newspaper article about his death and him alive side by side.

Alan: Huh?
May: …
Mark: Eh? That was a joke. o_O
May (again): What, should one have a problem with being named after a month?

May: Hopefully kick some ass in the Old-Timers' League in a few years.

Quilava: I cannot say I like her very much from the little I know her, but I hope she will be decent.

Mark: I… I don't know. I guess I hope to eventually get over it. It's just a bit hard when I don't even know why he let it happen.

Quilava: I disliked her when I found out how focused she is on training and her Pokémon's strength and was glad that she would let me go, but when she was releasing me, I felt sorry for her. She's so confused. I think deep down she didn't want to be doing it.

May: I think I'll just let Mutark out with a bunch of wild ones - she's still low-leveled and needs some training - and take whichever one puts up the best fight. Seems like the quickest way to get one that's interested and has decent genes.

Mitch: I enjoy a good salad.

May: I already found a Torchic, and before that I'd found out where the Torchic were found on the island; I asked around. If they had all magically disappeared or something, I guess I'd have found some other Fighting-type. I need a Fighting Pokémon more than a Fire one.

May: My mom was never a trainer, but my dad was pretty good back in the day. He got to the finals of the Old-Timers' League once.

They're just fine, and why would anyone wish for their parents to be abusive?

May: Not if I can help it. Having Torchic and Mutark to level up all the way is going to be time-consuming enough.

Mark: Well, by now I really don't think she will. We've been training a lot, but she hasn't come anywhere closer to evolving.

May: I'll probably replace some of my team, but leaving them all behind after the work you've spent training them is stupid.

Ash to SandStormBuisle: During later journeying.

May: Uh, I caught them? I found Pikachu at the Lake of Purity, Skarmory in the cliffs near Alumine, and Caterpie over in Johto just before I left for Ouen.

Alan: Pamela was a pet originally. Charlie was my proper starter, from my dad. Mist was abandoned in that box as an Eevee. Diamond I got after my failed journey in Ouen. Racko I got when I went journeying in Hoenn, Vicky too at some point during my journey there.

Ash to darthjarjar: Maybe, if they need me and I find a good opportunity to slip out without publicity.

Alan: We took all of them, but only kept her. The rest we took to a nearby adoption center.

May: Great. A Blaziken now.

Alan: How did I evolve them? They just… evolved. o-O That's a weird question. And Mist doesn't know what happened to her siblings after we gave them up to that adoption center.

Tyranitar: …

May: I figure he can talk, but just doesn't like talking.

May: Well, that depends on what my opponents will be using and what the themes of the arenas will be.

Taylor: My team's Raitwo, Mewtwo^2, Feraltwo, Shiftwo and Sciztwo.

Rick: One of the Mew clones. Never should have used the real one.

May: Not very interesting ones. She has Crunch, Slash, Night Slash, Glare and so on. Mutark's niche is to become powerful enough to beat the opponent without having the best of moves.

Ash: Oh, no.

Mark: Huh?

Scyther: …favorite color? Why have a preference about colors? They're just convenient ways to distinguish objects.

May: It hasn't happened yet. It's at three. Not that I'd worry much; I'm up against some kid who seems to think he's Ash Ketchum and has only mediocre or unevolved Pokémon. Pretty high-leveled, so there was room for doubt, but then I saw him train.

Chaletwo: I really don't know. It hasn't been going too badly for Mark so far, but that's because we knew the locations of all these four beforehand, and I wouldn't know how the others are doing. There aren't many left, but there could be reason they've eluded us so far.

May: Other than what? I mean, not since Torchic. I don't think I need any more.

Alan: We've picked up his trail. Been asking some wild Pokémon if they've seen him, and we think we're on the right track, at least.

May: Have you told Flygon, Mutark and Blaziken about the mission to capture the legendaries yet? If not, when are you going to?

May: Well, we had to tell them - otherwise if Chaletwo suddenly whips us off to help Alan, they'd be pretty confused.

Flygon: Do you enjoy battling?

Flygon: It can be fun when I win, but I don't like getting hurt too much. I just want to do my best.

Flygon, how did you feel about being told to battle against a powerful legendary without properly knowing what it was all about, and has May explained everything to you yet?

Flygon: Oh, she'd told me all about it before. After the Suicune fight, I think. Battling Volcaryu was scary, but we have to be brave to keep going.

May: Well, Qwilfish has some things going for it. I mean, it's no powerhouse, but neither is Butterfree or Raichu. I just need my Pokémon to be usable. Something like Farfetch'd can't do much of anything, but you can work with Qwilfish. I like to think I can train mediocre Pokémon well enough to make good use of them.

Gyarados: I… don't know how it works. Somehow I drain all the energy from my body and use it to attack. I only discovered I could do it.

Alan: I've told him already. We've… well, pieced it together. I just don't understand why Chaletwo would keep something like this from us. Couldn't it have helped if he'd told us everything about their powers, at least? Couldn't he… you know, change them, if he's the one who made them in the first place? Why didn't he even tell Molzapart before we set out to capture all the legendaries?

May: Well, depends on what I'd be going up against. You have to pick your team with respect to what your opponent has, you know? And where you'll be battling, what kind of strategy you want to employ, that kind of stuff.

Mark: What do you mean? Trainers couldn't interfere in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, and I didn't really have the time to try to snap him out of that Attract or whatever it was at the Crater Town Gym before she'd taken advantage of it.

May: You too? I'm getting really sick of all this Pokémon-are-your-friends blather. Yes, yes, they're alive and I should love them for who they are and all that, but that doesn't change that Pokémon battling is a competitive sport. If you're going to be any good at it, you need to make a well-constructed team and they need to be fully evolved to live up to their full potential, with a few notable exceptions. I don't care what Pokémon you used to beat some video game; this isn't a video game. This is a real competition and you can't just go into it waxing poetic about how Pokémon are your friends and expecting to get anywhere. It's too bad if some Pokémon don't like it or generally aren't up to it, but then I can release them and use some others that are. I'm not some sort of a monster trying to be mean.