A Journey's Link

Chapter 14 - Reunion

"May?!"

May couldn't see Ash through the dark, but she had to guess that he was pretty surprised. It had been quite some time since they had last seen each other, which was at the Wallace Cup in the Sinnoh region. May would be excited to see Ash in any other circumstance than the one she was currently in.

Ash was happy to meet up with an old friend, but his hidden smile faded when he remembered that May was softly crying when he showed up. May set the flashlight facing up towards the ceiling so they could both see. She saw his face grow serious and decided it would be best to explain the situation.

"So it's pretty obvious that you know about the storm and what it's done to the city," May began. Ash nodded and felt a tinge of guilt in the back of his mind. "Well, I was just leaving the Rustboro City Contest Hall whenever the storm hit, and I had all of my Pokemon out to celebrate after a great performance while we waited for a friend to finish performing," May explained.

She looked over at the healing station, which housed her Pokemon. "And I'm sure you can guess what happened after that," she said sadly. Ash felt bad and knew something had to be done to cheer up May. "Well, as long as they're on the healing station, they should be just fine!" he said, smiling. While he wasn't exactly sure how injured her Pokemon were, he hoped that his positive words may motivate her.

May smiled back at Ash through the dim light, glad for his words of encouragement. She suddenly was reminded of how his positive attitude had helped her through lots of rough times. "Right!" she said. "I know everyone will turn out great!"

With those words, she ran out of the room and towards the injured Pokemon in the lobby, hoping she could help their trainers in any way. Ash watched her quickly leave the room, leaving him both glad and slightly confused.

It's good that she wants to help others, but she could've at least said an actual hello, Ash thought, scratching his head while Pikachu followed suit. He quickly forgot about it, and decided since May was going to help others, he would tend to her Pokemon and make sure they heal properly.

In the room over, Goh was caring for two sets of Pokemon, both belonging to different trainers. So I just turn this knob here? This one starts the machine, he told himself. I think. He had taken classes on how to operate and utilize healing machines, but now that he was actually in a dire situation where he needed to use them, he started to slightly struggle.

While he continued tinkering with the settings on the healing machine in his room, May was in the lobby, asking people if they needed their Pokemon healed. She was bombarded with countless requests, before unfortunately having to settle with only a few, which angered and worried the trainers that weren't able to have their requests fulfilled.

"I'm sorry everyone," Nurse Joy calmly said, trying to explain the issue. "But we simply don't have enough healing machines. Until then, please try to use any berries or potions you may have on you." May saw the state of the Pokemon Center and felt bad for not being able to please everyone; she knew, however, that she needed to get back to the healing room which housed both Ash and her Pokemon.

She walked in and saw Ash tending to her Pokemon; she was glad to see Ash was still the same gracious person he had been in Hoenn. She walked over to the second, unused healing machine in the room and began turning a few knobs to heal the Pokemon. So far, it seemed that every trainer's Pokemon had some form of paralysis.

"Thanks for watching my Pokemon, Ash," May said, sitting down in a nearby chair. "I was so worried about them that I failed to remember that I'm not the only trainer in this mess. There are dozens of trainers in the lobby anxiously waiting for their Pokemon to be healed, and I was just sitting here doing nothing about it..." She hung her head in shame and sighed out of embarrassment.