BOY OH BOY DO I FEEL STRONG! Kirlia touted. Lifting up small rocks on the beach to show off his new psychic powers. I may look more like a girl but who cares? I'm still super awesome and once I become a Gallade the world won't know what hit them! Wally, did you see me though? I evolved!

I sighed to myself. The evolution was probably a good thing overall but clearly, it also served to inflate Kirlia's already too big ego.

Brendan clapped his hand onto my shoulder, almost knocking me over. "Great work Wally! You beat those goons!" He grinned at me.

My face started to go red from the sudden attention so I focused on the now defeated Crown Goons.

Sapphire returned his Pokémon and he and his two friends looked around nervously as people on the beach glared at them. The group of three quickly dashed past us and continued running through the city.

I felt pretty good about my victory and returned Kirlia to his Pokeball to get a bit of silence.

Brendan and I were heading back to the Pokémon Center when somebody approached us.

The man was dressed very professionally. He was wearing long black pants and purple shoes. Along with a purple undershirt and a black overcoat and a dark red, flowing, tie.

He had giant metal bracelets on his wrists and his fingers had two rings on each hand. The man was also wearing a pin on his lapel with a mysterious symbol on it.

The man seemed to be in his mid-thirties and was quite tall. Standing well over Brendan and I. He had sharp blue eyes and an inviting smile on his face. His shining aquamarine hair seemed to be messily done and going in different directions.

"Hello, there young trainers. It is a pleasure to meet you. I saw your battle against those pesky miscreants and I was quite impressed. You certainly know how to carry yourselves." The man spoke wistfully.

Brendan raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, I guess? Who exactly are you?"

I began to shake as I realized who it was we were talking to. "Y-y-you're S-S-Steven Stone." I practically whispered. Brendan's jaw dropped.

Steven nodded. "Indeed, that's correct. And what might your names be?"

"Uhm." Brendan quickly collected himself. "I'm Brendan! And this is Wally!" I was thankful Brendan was answering for me. I could barely muster the courage to stand in front of Steven Stone.

Steven seemed to process what Brendan had said for a long moment. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. Unfortunately, I must be going, life as a Champion is quite busy. I do hope that we meet again in the future. For now, though, take this for your efforts. You'll know when the right time is to use it." Steven held out a light blue rock that glimmered in the sunlight.

I quickly accepted it and The Champion walked away from us after waving. I put the stone in my bag trying to playback the events that had just happened. Ever since Steven had become the champion I had always idolized him. He had been a major motivator in my quest to become a trainer and I had just met him.

Brendan was elated as well. "Dude! We just met Steven Stone! That was awesome! Plus he gave you a rock!"

"Not just any rock," I smiled at Brendan. "This is a Dawn Stone. It can evolve Kirlia into a Gallade."

Brendan started walking off to the Pokémon Center with an energetic spring in his step. Well for one of his feet. The other one still limped along. "That's great! You should evolve him!"

I hesitated. "Well, I'm not sure if that's the best course of action right now. It can often be o-overwhelming to evolve a Pokémon twice so quickly. So I should probably wait a bit."

Brendan clearly didn't get it but he accepted the answer. "Fair enough."

We walked into the Pokémon Center and had our Pokémon healed. I looked down at Nian's Pokeball for a moment as I sat down at a table with Brendan and remembered something.

He had said his original trainer was named Steven. Was there any chance that Nian belonged to Steven Stone? No. There was no chance. Steven was way too common of a name to think about that.

Brendan and I began to plan out our next adventure when the doors to the Center slid open and a familiar face walked in.

Brendan completely froze when he saw May standing in the doorway. She didn't see us yet and walked up to the desk.

I was about to go get up and talk to her when Brendan grabbed onto my arm. "Wally, we've gotta go now. I'll explain later but let's move."

I stared at him with my mouth agape. "What are you talking about? Do you know May or something?"

He muttered something under his breath angrily. "Uhm look Wally just help me out, man."

I cocked my head to the side. "Are you feeling alright, Brendan?"

"Wally?" May asked, finally noticing me, and she walked up to us. Brendan tried to hide his face but it was too late "BRENDAN!" May screamed

Brendan sighed, defeated. "Yep. It's me."

"Brendan Birch! Do you have any idea how worried everybody has been? I can't believe you!" May shouted.

People began to turn their heads from the commotion. "'May come on not here. People are staring." Brendan pleaded.

"No! We are doing this right here! Right now! Who in Distortion do you think you are stealing Pokémon and running off without telling anybody? You couldn't have even told me? I spent so many days worrying about you! You-you jerk!" May finally finished shouting. She grabbed her Pokémon from the front desk and stormed out of the Center.

I couldn't even begin to fathom what had just happened. "Shoot. I gotta-I have to talk to her or something." Brendan said. He got up and dashed out of the Pokémon Center.

I was pretty confused about what to do at that point. Suddenly Kirlia's Pokeball burst open and he stretched out on the couch. Where's the new guy?

"Not right now Kirlia." I sighed.

What's got you in a mood? Kirlia asked me. He picked up a magazine off of the table and stared at it for a moment. Right. Can't read.

"I don't even know what just happened. May showed up and started shouting at Brendan and then he ran after her." I explained.

Dude! We gotta follow them! I for one, am very interested in this drama.

I almost laughed at that. "You just want an excuse to be out of the Pokeball, don't you?"

I'll have you know that it's really boring in there!

"Come on, let's go," I said, gathering my things and placing Kirlia on my shoulder. We walked out of the Pokémon Center and began looking around for Brendan and May.

I found Brendan and May yelling at each other near the lighthouse. I jogged over to them and as I entered earshot I began to make out their argument.

"May you don't understand! I had to leave!" Brendan insisted.

May crossed her arms. "I'm sure you did! And why exactly did you need to leave? Because you couldn't stand your daddy not letting you go on a Pokémon Adventure for another year? You know the only reason I left was that I wanted to find you!"

Brendan shook his head. "May, come on! You know that's not why I left! I wouldn't do something like that just to go on a stupid adventure!"

"Then tell me why. Why did you need to go?" May pressed.

"I can't tell you! You don't deserve to get involved in all of this." Brendan told her.

"Liar!"

I walked up to them and gave a quick wave to May before whispering in Brendan's ear. "Brendan I know whatever's going on is serious. Just tell her the truth."

Brendan sighed. "Fine. I'll tell the truth. Look, I found out my dad knows about some pretty nuts stuff. Basically, he and some other scientists conducted some experiments and found that something was wrong with Hoenn. By their calculations, some sort of mysterious force was causing the sea levels to rise at a super-fast level and the volcano was filling with magma super quick. Basically, Hoenn was going down.

"So I had to tell people. They were going to keep it a secret and flee before disaster struck. But I knew nobody would believe me if I was just some dumb kid. But if I became strong enough, they'd have to listen. That's the truth May. I swear it on my mom." Brendan explained. I felt pretty bad for essentially eavesdropping but Brendan gave me a reassuring smile.

May stood there for a long moment, unsure of what to do. "I guess... I guess it's true then. But why didn't you tell me? I would've understood Brendan!"

"I wasn't thinking. Soon as I read those emails I just got this mentality that everyone was my enemy. But I was wrong. I'm sorry May." Brendan stuck out his hand to her but she tackled him in a hug.

"Just don't do that kind of stuff again you dummy!" May told him with tears lining her eyes. "I thought-I thought you were gone for good."

"S-so, can somebody explain what's going on for me?" I asked, feeling very out of place.

Brendan and May separated and Brendan cleared his throat. "Well Wally, I lied to you. A lot. In my defense, I thought I was being hunted but still. My name is Brendan Birch. I stole my starters from my dad when I learned dad was holding out important information from the public. I busted up my ankle trying to run away from him. And also May here is my childhood friend. I think that's everything?"

Kirlia laughed to himself. Oh, snap! He's a liar! The drama continues!

———————-

And the drama will continue... next time! Thanks, everybody for reading! I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter! I don't have much to say so I'll just close it off here! See you all next time! Have a great day! Bye!