May had now successfully caught herself a Munchlax, though this was still somewhat unbelievable to her and Max that there was such a way to catch a Pokémon. Though not so much for Ash and Brock, who knew just what kind of appetite the Munchlax and Snorlax species can have.
After catching this Munchlax, May finally also had her sixth Pokémon with her.
Before she even knew it, so much time had passed.
At the beginning, she didn't even know what to do with her journey, but now she was qualified for something as prestigious as the Hoenn Region Grand Festival after winning her fifth official Pokémon Contest Ribbon.
But now that she had finally gathered all six Pokémon that she was eligible to carry with her on all times, if she wanted to catch another Pokémon in the future, she would have to worry about teleporting one of her current ones back, which she didn't know how to handle yet.
But she decided to go with the flow, just as her boyfriend told her he once did.
—
Since they were already on a island, they needed to take yet another boat out to sea again, Ash and his party decided to continue their sea journey and travel around the nearby islands before they needed their Hoenn Region journey, and now their next destination happened to be the venue of the Hoenn Region Grand Festival, Slateport City.
Speaking of this place, this was really an interesting cycle. One destined to just happen.
The first time Ash and May participated in any sort of official Pokémon Contest was here on the Slateport City Pokémon Contest.
At that time, May was still a newbie at pretty much everything, but now she had much more experience under her belt and had become a Pokémon Coordinator who can take charge of her own destiny.
This showed in how she is now about to participate in the Hoenn Region Grand Festival with the goal of becoming a Top Pokémon Coordinator.
"Okay, I'm going to do some special training!" Anyone with eyes could see that she was full of fighting spirit, it was practically impossible not to notice. She ate her lunch hastily and was ready to continue her earlier training. After all, she had just caught a Munchlax taht she didn't know much about. "I hope I can get more training done with Munchlax; I want to use him too."
Munchlax had a huge appetite, so May specifically asked Ash for advice on the Snorlax special Pokéblock he makes for his own one, and got a further simplified version as her Munchlax couldn't fully digest even one of those cubes.
Just three of these small cubes was enough to keep Snorlax awake all day long and continue his training, not to mention it was also a very big and strong one.
"May's current condition seems to be good, I think she'll do well…" Brock smiled as he watched May leave, he practically treated May and Max as his younger siblings, so he was very happy to see them progress.
"It's no wonder, after all, there are only about two weeks of so until the Hoenn Region Grand Festival begins." Ash replied with a smile while he fed his Pikachu some limited edition Tomato Berry ketchup.
"But Big Bro, you seem very calm." Max looked at Ash who was now busy making some special Pokéblocks along with his Pokémon's, and the amount of them around them were beginning to pile up like a mountain.
The two little girls, Ralts and Togetic, sat next to Ash, enjoying their food leisurely while occasionally helping him out with some minor things.
Hearing Max's words, Ash stopped for a second as if he felt something, but continued his work and said with a smile, "Munchlax is a very special Pokémon, Max. How to use it properly definitely requires May to put a lot of thought into it. Max, you might as well help your sister more in the future since she will be needing it more training up a Pokémon like a Munvhlax. Think about it, but don't try to do anything you're not sure about."
Hearing this, Max nodded, "I understand it now."
On the other side, because of her special training, May did not feed her Munchlax the more basic Pokéblock that Ash gave her, but only fed him two large pots of regular Pokémon food, so the little guy didn't have his stomach full enough to not be able to do some training at all.
But she suddenly found a huge ball rolling down from the top of the hillside. Without her being able to do anything, her Munchlac took a huge bite and ate all of it without leaving anything behind.
"Huh, Munchlax, why did you eat that?" May didn't even have time to see what it was, let alone have the time to stop it, Munchlax had probably already digested the whole thing by now.
"My rice ball...Give me back my rice ball!"
Then she heard a voice coming from the top of the hillside, and a big boned young man suddenly rushed down. May was so frightened that she quickly pulled her Pokémon away, making the unfortunate young man hit what looked to be very hard tree.
"Um...Um, are you okay?" May asked meekly and concernedly after waiting a few seconds. After all, it was her own Pokémon that ate the rice ball that this dude sounded to be after.
"Yeah… I think I'm okay!" The boy turned around. Seeing such a beautiful girl like May, he naturally wouldn't get angry, instead he was blushing very much, but he still wailed a little, "My rice ball... my food…"
"How about this, you can come to our camp to have lunch there, this is my way to apologize!" May had no choice but to pay compensation for her mistake, hoping that Brock still had some food left over from their lunch.
"Really? Thank you so much! By the way, my name is Morrison, and I'm practicing in order to win the Hoenn Region Evergrande Conference!" He said happily thinking May was interested in him, so he showed off his achievements.
"I see, my name is May, so you are one of Ash's rival?" May also introduced herself and took Morrison back to the camp while making her Munchlax apologies for eating his food.
Morrison noticed Ash, who was now busy helping Brock put everything back in their place. Feeling the aura of Ash and the strength of the Pokémon behind him, especially that Pikachu that smiled at him, Morrison took a few strides and sat opposite Ash, looking quite nervous, "So you are Ash, my name is Morrison, please to meet you!" He said a little too quickly.
Ash glanced at May who looked back at him back with a sheepish smile and he turned towards Morrison, "Yeah, that's me. Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! This is my Pikachu, Ralts and Togetic! The others are resting in their Poké Balls after our training."
"Sis, what's going on? Who's that random guy there?" Max came to his sister's side and asked softly.
"When I was doing my special training, Munchlax accidentally ate his rice ball that was flying offf. So I had no choice but to bring him back here as an apology." May said, turning towards the sitting Brock, and begged him, "Brock, please tell me we have some more food with us!"
To this, Brock just nodded with his big brother energy.
"Ash, let's fight. My goal is to become the world's number one Pokémon Trainer!" Morrison couldn't wait for lunch to end, so he immediately challenged Ash to make himself look better in May's eyes, who he now already had a big crush on.
That smile of her was dying for.
'It would be perfect if she could be my girlfriend…' He began thinking with a big blush.
For most Pokémon Trainers, the moment their eyes meet is the moment when the battle begins.
Ash was also someone who wouldn't refuse the invitation of a Pokémon Battle, especially when he needed more of his Exchange Points, he just hoped that this Morrison would put up a good fight.
Now that Ash looked at Morrison more carefully, he didn't even need to use his Aura to see that he was thinking of May. He practically had hearts in his eyes now.
{WOW, love, looks like you have a love rival.} Ciel said in her rare sultry tone.
'He can only wish.' He smirked inwardly, not wanting to let May go despite knowing it's pretty much impossible for her to leave him because of their bond.
-
-
The battle soon started after they went to their makeshift battle field, with Brock in charge of getting the food ready again, Max had to temporarily step in to serve as the referee for this unofficial battle.
"Ash, come on, the Pokémon I will use in this battle is my Beldum!" Morrison took the lead in sending out his Pokémon, and what came out was one of the two Hoenn Region Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon's.
The only reason he did was to impress May, who was watching just yet another practice battle.
{This dude still has no idea that she's your girlfriend, does he?}
Ciel asked mischievously from her very comfortable bed.
'I doubt so, but who cares? Now I'm a little more excited.' He told her confidently.
This was the pre-evolution form of Metagross, Beldum!
And also one that Ash had longed to catch for a long time.
This Beldum was trained decently well, so Ash naturally did not want to let his guard down and face his first loss in a long while to someone that is trying to impress his beautiful girlfriend, "Lairon, stand by for battle!"
It was the battle of the Steel-types!
At first, Ash had thought Steven would give him a Beldum, something that always seems to have in bulk, but what he didn't expect was gaht he would given the rare Hidden Ability, Heavy Metal. Aron. Now he has trained him into a powerful big Lairon, a real metal monster!
"Beldum vs. Lairon, let the battle begin!" Max shouted dutifully, almost more excited than Morrison hoping to impress May.
"Lets strike first! Beldum, use Take Down!" Morrison was on fire from excitement from the very beginning, but Beldum at this point only had one attack that is could really use, and that was Take Down.
This is alos one of the rare moves that will reflect some damage into the user.
Cultivating a Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon is a very time-consuming process, that much was proven time and time again.
Every Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon has some limiting factors in the process of their growth to their final form.
After all, you need to go through harsh training before you can see truly gain the power to what you wish to do, so every bit of that strength is not earned for nothing.
(Unless you're a Celestial Dragon, go kill yoirslef then.)
Only by breaking through these early tests can they truly become the true Pseudo-Legendary power their name holds!
Ash's and pretty much every Dratini in the world taht evolved had to go through several molts before evolving into a Dragonair, and each time they needed some protection to not get stopped in the middle of something this important.
Once Bagon evolved, it needed to change into the cocoon-like Shelgon for a long period before it can really transform into the true dragon with its pair of blood red wings!
The thing holding Beldum back now was that it was actually very weak at this stage and can only use one attacking move.
For Ash before, training up a single Dratini was already quite labor-intensive, though he could have probably handle another one or two to be honest, but now that his Dratini has evolved into a Dragonair, he was quite relieved.
All they saw was that Beldum charging straight towards Lairon. Although his momentum was going well, Ash just chuckled at it. The difference in level was too much, not to mention the way they can attack, so such a battle was a bit demoralizing to think about.
He didn't even need to give out an order, and his Lairon remained motionless on his one accord. Jsut then, he used an Iron Defense and easily took the blow from the Take Down like it was nothing, and even without needing to use Iron Defense, it would have been perfectly fine.
Its armor was now entirely made of extremely strong and powerful stainless steel, and this l only took it's ridiculously high defense power to an outrageously high defense power.
So how could such an attack even damage or shaken it?
The answer is that it can't. Very simple.
"Beldum, don't back down, keep using Take Down!" Morrison was really burning like crazy, and didn't think of any plans to get around this shortcoming of theirs, "My Beldum's spirit is very different from any normals Pokémon's, go for it, Beldum!"
Since this is their case, Ash had no choice but to go in the offense. In fact, even if Lairon remained motionless and didn't use any moves to power itself up, Beldum would have knocked himself into the ground and lost the ability to fight because it would be too tired and that it was also pretty much impossible to do any real damage on Lairon. However, for a Pokémon Trainer like Ash, it seemed a bit disrespectful to his opponent, even if it truly wasn't his intention to begin with.
"Alright then, here's my warning and pity!" Ash momentum surged at this moment, "Metal Sound!"
(Have you guys ever heard the screech sound of a nail scratching against a blackboard in real life?)
The moment Ash gave the order, Max, as the referee and the closest person in front of Lairon, was the first to move back, as to not be the one go get attacked.
But this really wouldn't matter as moves like this wouldn't be heard by the human ear unless the Pokémons using it wanted the human ear to be able to listen to it.
Beldum was obviously the one to be effected by this sound the most, and it's Take Down, which was full of vigor, had to stop midway.
The other Pokémon's just had to cover their ears and Ash used his Aura powers to make sure it isn't too loud for them, he did the same for the nearby wild Pokémon's. But only May seemed to notice it from a human standpoint
"Beldum, come on, continue to use Take Downs!" Morrison's shout was now nothing but useless, and he would not have the chance to attack again.
"Iron Head!"
Ash's collision attack came, and the heavy body of Lairon brought lots of terrifying impact behind it. Lairon knocked Beldum far away, and it broke broke 4 thick looking trees and finally crashed heavily on the hillside. Only then did it stop moving.
"Beldum loses its ability to fight, meaning the winner is Lairon and Big Bro!"
Morrison quickly ran over and took his Beldum back to rest, "Beldum, thank you, you are the best!"
As he spoke, he looked at Ash and said, "Ash, although you won this time, I won't lose to you in the number of official Gym Badges I have. Don't be surprised when you hear this, but I already have 7 of my needed 8 official Gym Badges. All I need is to get that last one, and I would be able to participate in the Hoenn Region Ever Grande Conference!"
He said with a grin, trying another time to win May over.
{Poor guy still doesn't realize it, blind ahh ginger. Reminds me of those Brits I hate.}
Ciel said coolly.
Ash didn't even say anything, he was also confused on why Morrison wouldn't take the hint when his hands were quite literally around Mays slim waist.
"Dude, Big Bro already had all 8 for a while now." Max said in a deadpan voice, also realizing that Morrison was just trying to impress May, and he was also failing horribly at it.
'Like why would sis chose you over Big Bro when they love each other so much? He's also far stronger, cooler, handsome, and most definitely more richer than you!' Max couldn't help but think this.
He then continued on like he wasn't thinking about about of that at all, "Plus, there are only two months left before the Hoenn Region Ever Grande Conference begin. You have to hurry up to not miss the sea!" Max returned to Ash and looked at Morrison helplessly.
Hearing this, Morrison suddenly became anxious, "No, I have to get the 8th Badge quickly!"
Brock just sighed, 'Why do I see a bit of myself in him?'
And he was answered when his heart broken patterned Spinda just randomly came out of its Poké Ball.
'Nevermind, I already knew it.' He sighed disappointedly and patter its round head.
'Maybe I'll find my destined one soon…'
He then turned his sight back on the others.
-
Even after all that, he had lunch there and tried to get closer to May without knowing her boyfriend was right next to her.
Smiling knowing that it's impossible to steal his May away from him.