Journeying Through Johto

Chapter 2: Absol-utely Eeveenly Matched

And here's another chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

May tapped her foot soundlessly on the marble floor. She was in the backstage room where the contestants sat in anticipation, waiting for their name to be called. Drew sat next to her, doing a few last minute touch-ups to his Butterfree, who he would be using for his appeal. After May's tapping became more insistent, he spoke.

"You seem nervous."

She paused. "Well, new place and all, I guess," she let out a long breath before saying, "Plus, I just got the idea for Squirtle's appeal. I haven't tried it before so I don't know if it'll work out or not." Drew didn't say anything for a moment, continuing to clean Butterfree with a spray and cloth. Then, decidedly, he said, "Well it's a risk and now's the time for that. Besides, that seems to be your style."

"You think so?" May turned to look at him. He nodded.

"Improvising and going with the flow seems to come pretty naturally to you." He wanted to add how he admired her for it because he was never capable of it, but decided not to.

"It does but...." May paused, unsure how to convey what she was thinking.

"But what?" he asked, this time turning to look at her.

"You know how back in Kanto we talked about finding our own styles? I felt like I needed to change this part of me in order to find it. The part that's always coming up with stuff last minute and taking risks. So I don't know if me doing a completely new appeal right now is helping me with that new style or if I'm just doing what I've always been doing since the beginning. Maybe I should have waited and entered the next contest like Luna. So I could prepare more." She sighed. Drew stayed quiet for a moment, mulling over her words and considering the best way to respond.

"No, May. I don't think there's anything wrong with you entering the contest today or doing a new appeal. Improvising and taking risks is just one aspect of your battle style, not the whole thing. It's not something you need to change unless you really think you want to. And.. well, the rest comes with experience. The more you develop as a coordinator, the more you'll start to see that you have a distinct style," Drew paused, hesitant about whether he should say what he was thinking. He plucked up the courage to. "And...I think your risk-taking and improvisation is what makes your appeals and battles unique. It keeps everyone on their toes because they don't know what to expect."

"Oh...I guess I never thought of it like that. I just did it like that because, well, like you said, it just sort of came to me," May looked down at her hands in her lap, slightly embarrassed.

"Right. So you should do what comes naturally. That tends to give the best results," Drew concluded, rising to his feet and returning Butterfree to its pokeball just as his name was called.

May looked up abruptly and called a good luck to him as he walked to the door. He raised a hand in acknowledgement of her words before disappearing from the room. May's mind was still reeling from his words but she made sure to pay attention to the screen as he walked out on stage.

"Butterfree! Let's go!" he called throwing his Pokeball in the air. Butterfree emerged, beautiful and elegant, it's wings shinier than May had ever seen them. "Use whirlwind while spinning! And then use psybeam!" Butterfree did as told, creating a mesmerising multi-coloured tornado. "Now quickly soar out of the tornado and use gust facing down!" Butterfree did so and the previously spiraling colours from the pysbeam were pushed toward the ground and burst outward in an explosion of sparkles and colour. May had not seen Drew's Butterfree do an appeal before and she sat there in amazement at its beauty. It was a simple yet gorgeous appeal. The audience was on their feet as Drew gave a small bow and returned Butterfree.