Chapter 7: May
May was outside, waiting for him.
“Hi again, Mark. Did you get the badge?” she asked as soon as he stepped out of the gym.
“Yeah, but his Mew was very tough,” Mark answered.
“Yes, I also found it tough. But I beat it with Skarmory! It really did great!”
They told each other in details how their battle went. May was impressed by how Charmeleon discovered a way to get the effects of Sunny day without using it.
“What an idea!” she said. “Most pokémon would give up in that situation – and most trainers, too.”
“Yeah, I’m very proud of Charmeleon,” Mark replied.
“It reminds me of my Quilava,” said May and went a little sad.
“What about it?” Mark asked.
“Well, I got my first pokémon from Prof. Elm. It was a Cyndaquil. But I didn’t like it and it didn’t like me. I caught a Caterpie and raised it to Butterfree and then I went over here to catch a low level Skarmory. It’s one of my favorites, so I wanted to catch one as soon as possible. I planed to go back to Johto after catching one, but when I was on my way, I found a trainer. “What about a 1 on 1 battle?” he asked, and I agreed. Cyndaquil was level 13 by then. He sent out a strange Pikachu – it had some blue balls at the end of its ears and its cheeks were also blue. And its paws – and claws. It had VERY long blue claws. And the tail was like a black thread with a blue triangle at the end. And its hind legs were so long... well, when he sent it out, it said something that sounded more like “Pikatu” than “Pikachu” and electric waves started streaming between the balls on its ears. And when I had sent out my Cyndaquil, the trainer said “Running shock!” and it ran over to Cyndaquil and made those electric waves touch it, and – and Cyndaquil just became paralyzed like that and Ember was disabled. I couldn’t understand what was happening, I just stood there and watched Cyndaquil being creamed, but finally I shouted: “Cyndaquil, don’t give up!” and then it started to glow, and evolved into a Quilava. It looked at me, and I felt it trusted me. And it was strong. It beat the strange Pikachu and when he had recalled it and I had recalled my Quilava, he said: “That’s a strong Quilava you’ve got there.” And I said I didn’t like it and it didn’t like me, I must’ve been thinking about it as Cyndaquil, because I liked Quilava, and he said he had a Charmander and asked me if I wanted to trade, and I said: “A Charmander? This is a level 15 Quilava!” and he said: “Chamander is also level 15, but it won’t evolve until level 16...” What’s wrong, Mark?” He had turned pale.
“Wha... no, nothing. Just go on.”
“Well, then I accepted the trade, I don’t know what I was thinking, I handed Quilava’s pokéball to him and he gave me Charmander’s, and then he went away, but when I checked Charmander, it was only level five! And I went so mad I threw the pokéball away and ran after him. But I didn’t find him, and it rained that evening, I’m so worried about the poor Charmander, it must have got out of the pokéball when I threw it, maybe it’s dead by now, all my fault...” May couldn’t continue.
“I’m sure it’s okay,” Mark said. “I’m sure some trainer found it and it’s in good hands now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was May?!” Mark said angrily to Charmeleon when May was gone. “What if she finds out? She could as well claim you as her pokémon!”
“Meleon. Char, mele meleon. Charmeleon.”
“Only saw her back? That doesn’t matter! Why didn’t you just tell me it was a blue-haired girl that looked like May? That would’ve helped, but you just stood there and told me nothing!”
“Charmeleon! Meleon Charmeleon!!!”
“Didn’t think I would be interested in knowing that? You act like you want to get another trainer!”
“Meleon!”
“I act like I want to get anoter pokémon? Well, maybe I do act a little like I want another pokémon. Sorry about that.”
“Meleon.”
Mew was floating around in the air. It was fully healed. It looked curiously at a lamp on the table and touched it carefully. Then it started touching it again and again, always faster, until the lamp fell down and broke. Mew used its Psychic to make the lamp stick itself together and then put it on the table again. Mark laughed.
“Mew, stop playing with things here! Hotels aren’t designed for Mews like you! I will have to pay for it if you don’t stop!”
“Meww,” said Mew and flew up to Mark.
“Mew, I was thinking about something. You’re the original Mew. You should be free. That’s why I’m releasing you now. I’ve got you, so you count as one legendary pokémon I’ve caught. Now, you’re no longer owned by Rick. So you should be free now. Now I declare you are free; you are a wild pokémon again.” He opened the window and continued: “Now, Mew, fly out of the window and enjoy freedom!” Mew looked sadly at him, and then gave a little “meeeeeeew” as a goodbye and flew out into the sky. Mark looked out after it and hoped no one saw when it flew out. He had talked to Mew earlier and knew its home was deep in the Rainbow forest where it could not be found, so he just closed the window and stopped thinking about Mew. No one saw it; he tried to convince himself of that. But he knew by his heart someone did see it – and that someone also saw Mark looking out of the window.
Later that day, Mark went out to find May. Maybe she was going to train, or maybe she would battle him again. He searched a little around the town, and found May in the pokémon market.
“Hi, Mark,” she said, grinning. “I just bought a new bike. Look!” She took a little bike-like thing out of her bag and pressed a button. It maximized into a full size bicycle. “They’re cheap, you should buy one, too.”
Mark bought a bicycle for himself, minimized it and put it into his bag. Then May saw a Super rod on a shelf.
“These can come in handy. Shall we go training at the Lake? We just need one rod, we can take turns battling the hooked pokémon.”
“I’ve got no more money, so you’ll have to buy it,” Mark answered.
May bought the Super rod and then they went out and headed towards the Lake. The road was rocky, so they kept the bicycles in their bags.
“So, what pokémon have you caught?” Mark asked.
“Well, I have Butterfree and Skarmory, of course, and I caught a Pikachu here somewhere soon after our battle. And then I caught a Lapras on the bank of the lake just before I battled Rick. Well, that’s it. What about you?”
“I caught the Gyarados that “disappeared” – it seems to appear again every time that Suicune cleans the Lake. I saw it, too.”
“Wow! That’s impressive! What else did you catch?”
“Soon after our battle, I caught a Sandshrew.”
“Yeah, I remember now,” said May. “When you told me of your battle, you told me you used it to beat Mew. And – where is Mew now?”
“I released it,” Mark said. “I wanted it to be free, so I released it.”
“That was a good thing to do,” said May. “You did just the right thing.”
“Yeah, that was why I released it. Hey! There are two boys ahead. Maybe they’ll battle us.”
May stared at the boys, who were walking in their direction. “Oh no!” she sighed.
“What?” asked Mark.
“I know them. They were my classmates in school. They’re not funny, but they think they are...” she said. One of the boys pointed a finger at Mark and May and said something to the other boy. When they were about four meters from Mark and May, they stopped. May looked at them with disgust.
“Hi May!” one of the boys said, and they laughed like crazy.
“What’s so funny, you little punks?” May sounded like a roaring Houndoom.
“I see you’ve brought your boyfriend,” the other boy said and laughed even more. “Hahahahahahah! Hehehehehehe!”
May suddenly looked exactly like a raging Tauros. “Give me that!” she snapped and grabbed Mark’s bag.
“May...”
“Shut up, Mark!” May said and turned to the boys.
“How dare you!!!!! You know me, if I knew me I’d leave myself alone!”
“There it comes,” one of the boys said and laughed until he was suffocating.
“HE’S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!! I met him yesterday and he’s just trying to help me find the Quilava that was stolen from me! And I’m going to kill you now; I’ll hit you with these bags till I break every bone in your body! And they’re heavy, I’ll tell you, they hold two bikes, a super rod and lots of other stuff!” As May said this, she was walking slowly towards the two boys, waving the bags over her head. She was now just in front of the boys. She swung the bags back and was trying to swing them at the boys (who were not laughing anymore; they were actually panicking) when Mark grabbed his bag.
“May, remember violence solves no problem...” he started, but May looked furiously at him, and after thinking for a second, she hit him (not with the bags, luckily).
“Boys!!!!!! They’re all the same! They’re stupid, but think they’re so smart! I’m sure it was a boy who said that you were just saying! The only thing that works on boys is hitting them or kicking them or burning them with a Fire pokémon! And that still doesn’t teach them! I’m going to find my Quilava on my own, and I don’t need a boy to help me! I wish humans had the same system as hyenas where females rule male ones, even female puppies rule male adults! And you two... Okay, I’ll let you go if you shut up!”
She took out a pokéball and sent out a Pikachu.
“Pika!”
“Pikachu, let them go... with a Thundershock!”
“Pi...ka....CHUUUUUUUUUUUUU!” Pikachu used Thundershock on the boys. They still didn’t move. May recalled Pikachu and sent out Lapras.
“I’ll make Lapras Perish sing you if you don’t go away this instance and never come before my eyes again!” The boys ran away, shouting something like “Help! A mad girl!”
“I hate them,” May then said, like nothing happened. “Now, Mark, shall we continue?”
“I thought you said boys are stupid and you’re going to find Quilava without help from boys?”
“Don’t be silly, Mark,” she said. “I just said that so they wouldn’t spread out that rubbish talk.”
“But you hit me right in the face!”
“To make it look real,” answered May matter-of-factly.
“Okay, May, but don’t do that again. It still hurts!”
“Sorry, Mark,” said May. “But you wouldn’t want to meet some twenty kids saying “hey, watch out, your girlfriend bites!”, would you?”
“Bites?”
“Yeah, I once bit a boy in school when I was 8,” said May. “But I haven’t bit anyone since then.”
“May, do you know what? You can be truly scary!”
“Thanks,” said May and handed Mark his bag.
They went on. Soon, May asked: “What levels are your pokémon?”
Mark remembered it was long since he had checked their levels. “Wait a minute,” he said, “I’ll check.” He took out his pokédex and took the pokéballs, one after another, and checked the levels. Charmeleon was level 20 and had learned Rage, Sandshrew was level 20, too, Jolteon was also level 20, and Gyarados was still level 22. None of them had learned a new attack apart from Charmeleon.
“What levels are yours?” Mark asked.
“They’re all level 22. Pikachu knows Thundershock, Thunder wave, Quick attack and Double team. Skarmory knows Drill peck, Whirlwind, Sand-attack and Swift. Lapras knows Water gun, Body slam, Sing and Confuse ray. And Butterfree knows Sleep powder, Confusion, Stun spore and Supersonic.”
“You’ve selected attacks well, I see,” said Mark.
“They better be good, I spent a whole day deciding their moves,” said May.
“A whole day? You surely take your pokémon’s movesets seriously!”
“Attacks are important. Every time I catch a pokémon, I decide which attacks I want it to end up with before I start training. Otherwise, I could make terrible mistakes!”
“You’re right. But hey, we’re here. Let’s go fishing!” They hurried to the lake.