Today the gang was on a boat that was taking them to Izabe Island, where the next Pokémon contest was.
It was to be held in a city called Purika City.
May was training with her Bulbasaur on the boat, she had decided to use Bulbasaur this time.
"Okay Bulbasaur," May said, "last time you and I didn't do so well in the contest and lost. But this time you are ready for contests and we will win this contest together."
"Bulba!" Bulbasaur nodded in agreement.
Just then a teenager boy about the same age as Brock, with purple hair came up to May.
"Are you entering the Purika contest?" The boy asked.
"Yes I am," May answered, "and I'm entering with my Bulbasaur."
The boy introduced himself as Harley and said that he would be entering the contest too, then he took out a humanoid, bipedal Pokémon that resembles a green scarecrow made of cacti. It has yellow eyes and its mouth is composed of holes on its face. It has numerous spikes along the length of its arms, legs, and neck. A pattern of green rhombi extends down the front of its body and has two small dark green rhombi. There is triangular, dark green feature on its head that resembles a hat with spiky tips.
May looked at the Pokémon on the PokéDex:
Cacturne, the Scarecrow Pokémon.
The evolved form of Cacnea. It rarely moves during the day, but is active once the temperature drops at night.
"Wow, what a Pokémon." May said.
Harley didn't seem a bit pleased that May didn't know about Cacturne, he returned Cacturne to the PokéBall, 'I can't believe her,' he thought, 'not knowing a thing about Cacturne. Well I'll show her by beating her in the contest.'
It seemed Harley was one of those people with a sour puss attitude, he was about to walk away when they heard a voice.
"May." A voice called out.
May and Harley turned around seeing Winter walking up to them.
"Snow." May smiled, while Harley gasped seeing a coordinator that won every contest she entered.
"Bulba." Bulbasaur smiled seeing the white haired girl.
"Well May I'll be going now." Harley waved and walked off.
Winter raised an eyebrow at the person with purple hair and in a Cactune like outfit.
"That coordinator is someone I don't want as an enemy." Harley eyed Winter. "Winter Sky Storm."
----•••-----
By the next day, the gang had made it to Izabe Island and Purika City and May signed up for the contest at once.
Right now they were waiting for Max, he had gone off to the bathroom but he hadn't turned up yet. Just then Max turned up with Harley.
"Where have you been Max?" May asked.
Harley explained that he and Max were just having a quick chat with each other and he started to walk to the waiting rooms.
Winter stared at Harley, there was something about him that she didn't like, 'Why do I have a bad feeling about this person since I first saw him on the boat.' She thought, 'Peeking into his mind wouldn't hurt.'
"Come on guys we better get to our seats and May better get to the waiting room." Brock said.
"You guys, May and I need to have a quick talk," Winter said, "Brock, Tomo and Max you guys go on ahead."
So Brock, Tomo and Max went to the seats while May and Winter had a talk.
"What's wrong Snow?" May asked.
"I had a look into Harley's mind and he is the lying type and the picking on people type," Winter warned, "so May be careful around him and watch out for his lies."
May couldn't believe that Harley was that type of boy, but she knew that Winter was never wrong when she read people's minds and agreed to be careful.
----•••-----
Now it was time for the contest.
Vivian did the normal introductions and showed off the Purika Ribbon.
The Purika Ribbon was pinkish red with a yellow outline.
May went out first in the appeal rounds and called out her Bulbasaur, she ordered her Bulbasaur to use razor leaf and then use vine whip to hit the leaves.
The audience was impressed when Bulbasaur whacked the leaves with her vine whip attack.
Mr Contesta and Mr Suziko, who remembered May's Bulbasaur, could see that May and Bulbasaur were really in sync with each other now.
There were some other great performances after May; there was a Camerupt, a Surskit, an Azuril and a Tentacruel.
Until at last it was Harley's turn and he called out his Cacturne.
The audience, including May thought Cacturne looked scary.
Harley ordered his Cacturne to use bullet seed on the ground, and Cacturne fires bullet stage on the ground while moving around. The yellow glowing seeds made a big picture of skull and crossbones on the ground.
Both the audience and judges loved it.
It was obvious to May that Harley was a good coordinator.
----•••----
The results soon came and this time only four trainers got into the battle round.
May and Harley were in the battle rounds and so were other two male trainers.
May and Harley had to battle the other two male trainers first before they could face each other.
The trainer that Harley had to face was Bob; the trainer with the Azuril.
May's opponent was Kenth, the trainer with the Surskit.
Harley easily defeated Bill in a couple of seconds thanks to Cacturn's bullet seed attack.
---•••---
May congratulated Harley on his win, being a good sport.
"I'm sure you will easily defeat your opponent May because Surskit are really slow Pokémon." Harley said.
That of course was a lie because Surskit was one of those speeding Pokémon especially on water and ice.
May knew at once that Harley just made that up, she and the gang had met Surskit before and they all found out that Surskit was a fast Pokémon, also Winter has a Surskit and she explained to them about Surskit being fast on ice and water where it's her field.
"Snow was right," May whispered to herself, "Harley is the lying type. Well I'll show him and then I will beat him in the next round."
----•••----
May was soon up against Kent and their Pokémon were now out.
Kent ordered his Surskit to use double team to confuse Bulbasaur and hit it with quick attack.
Thanks to double team and quick attack Bulbasaur was in trouble.
"Okay Bulbasaur use sweet scent." May said.
Bulbasaur released a pink sweet smelling powder from her bulb, and because of the sweet smell Surskit slowed down and relaxed.
"Since Surskit is a speedy Pokémon I decided to use sweet scent to slow it down," May said, "now Bulbasaur use vine whip."
Bulbasaur whacked Surskit with her vine whip attack.
----•••----
Seeing what May did made Harley realize that she knew that he had lied about Surskit being slow, it made him grit his teeth in anger because his trick failed.
----•••----
"Using sweet scent to distract Pokémon is a great battle strategy," Winter said to the others, "I know because I had my Meganium use sweet scent in battles before along with my other grass type."
"I remember that." Tomo said and so did Brock.
---•••----
Kent ordered his Surskit to do water pulse and ride it to use quick attack on Bulbasaur.
As Surskit skate across the water pulse May ordered her Bulbasaur to use vine whip.
The vine whip whacked the water, putting Surskit off.
"Now use petal dance Bulbasaur." May said.
Surskit got hit by the petal dance good and Surskit got knocked off the water pulse.
The judges thought that the petal dance was gorgeous.
Just then the time was up and the final result was May and Bulbasaur with more points than Kent.
So May got into the final battle round.
----•••----
Harley was not happy that May had won, but was happy that he would fight her next, "I'll just deal with her in the final battle." He said to himself.
May was not happy that Harley tried to trick her before, "Don't think I'll forgive you for what you did." She said when they met up.
"Humph you were just lucky in that round," Harley said, "but you won't be in this round."
May couldn't wait to battle and deal with Harley in the next round.
----•••-----
Now it was time for May and Harley to face each other, and they called out their Pokémon.
Harley started first by ordering Cacturne to use poison sting.
When Cacturne fired the poison sting attack, Bulbasaur whacked the pins with vine whip so the poison sting failed.
May went next by telling Bulbasaur to use razor leaf, but Cacturne blocked the attack with bullet seed.
May and Harley were losing points by the second, but they were still tied.
May then told Bulbasaur to use energy ball and Cacturne got hit by it.
Harley was losing points fast, but he wasn't willing to lose yet, he had a secret weapon planned to try and put May off and make her lose and he pressed a button a remote control that he kept in his pocket.
Suddenly a voice, which seemed to Max's voice, was heard in the arena.
Apparently a tape recorder was taped to a sound system and Max's voice was on the tape recorder and being played, this was Harley's doing.
----•••---
Winter asked Max what was going on and Max told Winter that he told something about May to Harley when they met up.
Winter frowned, "Harley should learn when there's a limit of picking and making fun of someone in order to win." She said and looked at him.
"Pichu." Pichu glared.
"Chipa, Chipa." Pachirisu said.
---•••----
The voice started telling a story about what had happened to May when she was younger.
The story was one day May and her family were out for a day on the beach and May was swimming in the sea, her swimsuit and float were both blue so she nearly looked like a Tentacool.
A wild Tentacool was in the sea too and May wanted to pet it, but then suddenly she got surrounded by a school of Tentacool and they thought she was a Tentacool too. Of Course May got scared of that and called out for her parents.
Norman and Caroline heard her scream and Caroline grabbed a PokéBall to help her out.
But because May looked like a Tentacool swimming amongst the other wild Tentacool, Caroline thought that May was another Tentacool and had the attempt to capture her.
----•••----
The audience thought the story was very funny and they all laughed, except Winter, Max, Brock and Tomo of course.
----•••----
Harley also thought it was funny and began calling May Tenta-girl.
May felt really humiliated, upset and very angry from this, she glared angrily at Max from the audience.
Max quivered in fear; he didn't really know that Harley would do something like this.
"Okay no more miss nice girl." May said angrily, she had enough of Harley's bullying. "Bulbasaur fire toxic at Cacturne now!"
Bulbasaur fired a stream of purple liquid from her bulb and then the liquid hit Cacturne.
Cacturne became poisoned at once and it started to lose energy at once.
Harley was shocked by that, "Oh no Cacturne!" He cried.
"Now Bulbasaur use sludge bomb now." May said.
Bulbasaur fired a sludge bomb attack from her mouth at Cacturne and Cacturne got hit by it.
As Cacturne was weak against poison, the sludge bomb attack was too much for Cacturne to take and it fainted.
So May was the winner of the contest.
----•••----
May received the Purika Ribbon and was happy to have earned her fourth ribbon.
---••---
Harley of course was not happy that May won, he really had a sore loser attitude, so he returned Cacturne, left the building and vowed that he would defeat May next time.
Before Harley left the contest hall, Winter was in front of him.
"You know Harley you should be careful who you pick on." Winter said, she never forgives anyone who messes with her friend.
Pichu and Pachirisu glared at him.
"A warning next time you try this stunt again in front of me, it's war between us." Winter warned. "I won't go easy on anyone who messes with my friends." She walked off to May and the boys.
Harley shivered and flinched at her tone of voice, "I have to be careful of her." He mumbled and walked out.
----•••---
When Winter arrived she saw, Max apologising to May for telling Harley that Tentacool story.
May forgave Max, but she warned him not to tell Harley anymore embarrassing stories.
"Where were you big sis?" Tomo asked curiously since she just vanish after May received her ribbon.
"Nothing much." Winter smiled, "Just gave a warning to someone that's all."
Brock and Tomo nodded understanding what she meant, she met Harley and gave him a warning of messing with Winter's friends.
"So now that this contest is over, where do we go now?" Max asked.
Winter looked at her list of places where Pokémon contests were being held, "Well there is another one in Dusk Town, which is also on Izabe Island." She said. "May it's your next contest."
"Really then let's go." May said happily, she couldn't wait to enter it and get her final fifth ribbon.
"I agree, we should go there and check out the island around since it's so big." Brock said.
The others agreed to that plan and they headed off for the Pokémon Centre to rest for tonight.
May was happy to have a fourth contest ribbon and now she only needed one more just like Winter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•••~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The gang had gone through a lot on Izabe Island; visiting different places and seeing more Pokémon.
Winter and Max got new Pokémon; Winter captured a Snorunt from the snowy area of Izabe Island and Max had captured a Ralts.
This Ralts had been separated from its family in a forest area of Izabe Island, which of course were a Gardevoir and a Kirlia.
Ralts had developed a fever and was lost, but Max and the others got it to a Pokémon Centre to heal up and they reunited it with Kirlia and Gardevoir.
But Ralts had been close with Max and didn't want to leave him.
Gardevoir and Kirlia saw that Ralts wanted to be with Max, so they agreed to have Max have him as long as he took care of Ralts.
So Ralts belonged to Max now.
Not only that, a few of the gang's Pokémon evolved too.
Winter's Corphish evolved into Crawdaunt and Spoink evolved into Grumpig.
Brock's Lombre found a water stone and evolved into a Ludicolo.
Tomo's Charmander, Totodile and Treecko evolved into Chameleon, Croconaw and Grovyle while Tomo trained them.
And last of all May's Swablu evolved into an Altaria, so the gang had a lot of things happen to them.
----•••----
Right now the gang was heading for a town called Dusk Town, where a Pokémon contest was to be held.
By now they had come to a rocky area of Izabe Island.
"Oh man I can't take this." May moaned, who was tired from walking up a hill.
"Hang in there May," Brock said, "we are near a village called Riyado Town. We just need to cross over a bridge that will get us there."
May was happy to hear that because she was dying for a rest.
Winter perked up on a yelping noise, her Absol who was beside her quickly ran to the noise.
"Absol!" Winter called out and ran after her, with the rest of the gang following.
The gang ran over to where the noise was coming from, but what they saw horrified them.
An another, but the Absol was stuck in a snare trap and the rope was wrapped really tight around its back right foot.
Winter saw red, "That's disgusting!" She shouted, "If poaches did that I am so calling Officer Jenny!"
"Look its foot is bleeding!" Tomo said in worry.
Absol's foot was bleeding a bit.
Winter ran over at once to help Absol, "Stay still Absol, I'm going to get you out of there." She said.
But the Absol didn't take Winter's presence very well, but then it saw another Absol who spoke to him telling it was okay, her trainer is trustworthy.
"Absol." Absol nodded.
"Okay, there we go." Winter gently pulled the wires away, she ended up getting cut but she didn't care saving a Pokémon was first, "Ropes are next. Brock pass me your scissors please and get your first aid kit ready."
"Chu." Pichu said worriedly seeing Winter's hand starting to bleeded.
"I'm fine." Winter assured.
Brock came up to Winter, took out a pair of scissors out from his ruck sack and passed them to Winter.
"Be careful Sky." Brock warned.
Absol braced itself while Winter slowly and carefully managed to cut the rope off Absol's foot, without harming it.
Once the rope was off, Brock tended to the wound right away, he sprayed the wound with hyper potion and wrapped a bandage round it.
"There we are," Brock said, "you will be fine in no time at all Absol."
Absol stood up, nodding at Winter then ran off.
"It's a good thing we came by," Brock said tending to Winter's wounded hand, "if that Absol had still been in that snare trap, there's no telling what would have happened to Absol."
Yes, but who the hell put up this barbaric trap in the first place?" Winter said and wine at the wound.
"I can answer that question." A voice said.
The voice belonged to a boy about ten years old, "Hi I'm Nicky and I'm from Riyado Town," he said, "I saw you save that Absol and I'm glad you did that."
"But why are there snare traps set up around here?" Winter said crossly, "A Pokémon could die from those things."
"Sol." Absol nodded not happy to see its own kind was injured by a human trap.
"It's because the people in Riyado Town hate the Absols who live around this area," Nicky explained, "you see we have had some disasters around here lately. And the people here are blaming them because they belive that Absol bring disasters to people."
Winter twitched, "Excuse me but That's nonsense!" She shouted the last part, "we have met wild Absol before and it did not cause any disasters. Even I have an Absol with me and nothing bad happens to us."
"That's right and anyway just because Absol is known as the disaster Pokémon doesn't mean it can cause disasters." Max agreed.
"That's what I say and so does my big brother Gordon," Nicky said, "Gordon also didn't believe that Absol was the cause of the disasters around here. So he went on a journey to prove their innocence but he hasn't come back since. The people think the Absols made him vanish but I don't and I wish to prove their innocence too."
We should help prove Absol's innocence too," Tomo decided, "otherwise the people will do more bad stuff to the Absols."
The others agreed.
Brock started to think, "What disasters happened in the village Nicky?" He asked.
"The only disaster we have is that our wooden bridge by the river keeps on collapsing, and of course the Absol are blamed for that." Nicky said.
Absol rolled her eyes with Pichu and Pachirisu.
"Let's take a look at the river and bridge." Brock said.
"Sure." Nicky showed the gang the bridge and river.
Winter looked at the river and carefully examine the water, "That river doesn't look safe to me." She said.
"You're right Sky," Brock agreed, "it's flowing so fast and dangerously and it looks like it's rising."
Winter sat down and extended her arm toward the river, her aura activated and she senses something really wrong with the river flowing.
"What did you sense Sky?" Brock asked.
"I sensed that something is wrong with the river," Winter answered, "Nicky where does the water in the river come from?"
"The water flows down from the mountains, why?" Nicky said.
"Then we should go up the mountains and check out the water source ourselves," Brock said, "that must be why the river looks high and dangerous."
Nicky and the others agreed.
"I'll be coming with you kids too." A male voice said.
The voice belonged to a man, who looked like a punk.
"Isn't he..." Winter trailed off.
"Hey, aren't you Sidney of the Elite Four?" Max asked in surprise.
"I am," Sidney answered, "and I am here because I heard rumors that Absol are being hated around here."
Nicky bravely spoke up and told Sidney about the people in Riyado Town hating Absol because of the disaster with the river.
Sidney sighed, "People are always thinking that Absol cause disasters, but that is not true," he said, "Absol really have the ability to detect disasters. And what they do really is try to warn people of them. I know because I studied about Absol for years and I have an Absol myself."
"So that means the Absol around here are detecting a disaster with the water, but the people in Riyado Town don't understand." Brock said, "Wait a minute... Luna you forgot to mention that."
Winter laughed sheepishly, "Sorry my was occupied by the traps so my brain shut down about Absol ability."
Winter's Absol rolled her eyes and gently whacked her leg.
"Sorry."
"Okay, we should head to the mountains at once," Sidney said, "Nicky please lead the way to where the source of the water is."
"Gladly." Nicky said.
Nicky led Sidney and the gang up the mountain, towards a big rocky peak," Our water is from a mountain spring that's hidden inside this rocky peak." He explained.
Sidney touched the peak, "There is water sipping out of this." He said.
"Yeah and I feel it on the ground too." May said noticing the mud on her shoes.
"That's it, the river is rising because the volumes of the water in the spring is rising. Which means it will be over flooded and it may wash out all of Riyado Town along with it." Winter said.
"Then Absol was trying to warn the village about this all along." Tomo said.
"You're right." Sidney said.
"I agree." A voice said from behind.
The voice belonged to a green haired man; this man was Nicky's older brother Gordon.
Nicky was happy to see his brother and hugged him at once.
Gordon explained that he had been trying to learn all about Absol himself so to prove that Absol don't cause disasters, "I heard everything you all said and we should do something about before Riyado Town gets flooded." He said.
Suddenly there was a rumble and a big splash coming from the top of the rocky peak.
Water burst out of the peak, creating a waterfall and it poured down the mountain.
"Oh no, what should we do?" May asked worriedly.
Just then a pack of Absol stood on a ledge just above from where the humans were standing.
Winter noticed the Absol that they helped from the snare trap earlier, it still had the bandage around its foot.
The Absols fired hyper beam attacks at a big boulder that lay above the flow of water.
"The Absol are trying to move the boulder to try and stop the flood." Sidney said.
"Then lets help them." Winter said, she called out Combusken, Grovyle, Marshtomp, Gallade, Mismagius, Togekiss along with Absol, Pichu and Pachirisu to attack with flamethrower, bullet seed, hydro pump, hyper beam, and thunder at the boulder.
Tomo called out his Grovyle, Pelipper and Numel and he ordered both Numel and Growlithe to use flamethrower, Pelipper to use water gun and Grovyle to use bullet seed at the boulder.
May called out her Combusken, Beautifly, Bulbasaur, Skitty, Marill and Altaria and ordered them to use fire spin, silver wind, petal dance, blizzard, water gun and dragon pulse at the boulder.
Max called out his Loudred, Wingull and Shuppet and told them to use hyper beam, water gun and shadow ball at the boulder.
Brock sent out his Mudkip, Ludicolo, Aggron, Loudred and Nosepass and ordered them to use water gun, hydro pump, flash cannon, hyper beam and stone edge at the boulder.
Gordon and Sidney helped too.
Gordon sent out a Heracross and ordered it to use hidden power at the boulder.
Sidney sent out a Mightyena, Cacturne and an Absol and ordered both of them to use hyper beam at the boulder.
With all the attacks together, the boulder moved down the hill and stopped right in front of the water.
The water split into two, stopping the flooding from happening.
The humans and Pokémon cheered, happy that Riyado Town was now safe.
Gordon looked at the pack of Absol, "Thank you Absols," he said, "thanks to you our village is safe."
Suddenly the Absol, with the bandage around its foot, came down off the ledge and ran towards Winter.
"What's the matter Absol is your foot alright?" Winter asked.
Absol spoke to Winter and she of course understood what it said.
"What? You want to come with me?" Winter asked.
"It's obvious," Brock said, "Absol is grateful to Sky for saving it from that snare trap. So it wants to stay with its savior."
May looked at the two Absol, "And that's now all Snow, the other Absol likes your Absol." She said.
"Huh?" Winter said and looked at her Absol it was together, "Okay, Absol found love just like my other Pokémon." She pulled out a PokéBall and caught the other Absol, went to Professor Oak's lab. "I'll send you over as well." She returned her Absol and transferred it as well.
"Well we should get back to the town." Sidney said.
Gordon nodded, "Right, we should get back to Riyado Town and tell them about what happened." He said.
"Yeah, because we can now prove that the Absols were innocent." Nicky said.
"Let's go." Sidney said.
----•••-----
When they got to Riyado Town, Nicky and Gordon told the villagers about the flooding up in the mountains.
The villagers realized that they had been wrong about the Absol, causing the disasters, all along and they apologized to Nicky and Gordon for not believing their innocence.
"You should also apologize to the Absol," Sidney said, "especially since you had being setting traps for the Absols. The Absols could have been really hurt by your snare trap or worse died."
"That's rights and I'm a trainer that doesn't appreciate traps hurting Pokémon." Winter said.
Nicky and the gang told him about the snare trap earlier.
The villagers were very ashamed of their actions and promised to never do it again and to listen to Absols the next time they have a disaster.
Nicky and Gordon were grateful to Sidney and the gang for helping them.
Sidney was glad that this was all over now and he left the village.
Now that Riyado Town was safe from the flood and the wild Absols were proven innocent, the gang could finally have a nice rest in Riyado Town before continuing their journey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•••~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----------------------------•••----------------------------
Hello, sorry for the long wait.
1. I can't believe May fell for Harley's lie about Surskit being slow in the anime; I mean she had met Surskit before that, so she would have known about Surskit by then.
2. It's too sad you know that Max never caught the Ralts in the anime; and it has not said that he has kept his promise yet.
2. I'm really, really sorry if using a snare trap was a bit harsh, but I wanted to show the hate the villagers really held for the Absols.
The next chapter might take awhile!