AN: As promised, the second chapter of the day. Don't say I don't love you folks. Better get comfortable; this one's looong.

Title Song: The Three of Us by Streetlight Manifesto

The sun was peeking through the curtains of the hotel room in the morning when May was awoken from some distinctly interesting dreams by the sound of the door opening and closing. Groaning quietly, she rolled onto her back and stretched before forcing her eyes open to find Drew looking at her in mild amusement, a bag of what looked like groceries in his hand.

"How did you ever get anywhere on time when you were traveling by yourself?" He asked.

"Munchlax would usually let himself out of his Poke Ball when he got hungry and poke me in the face until I got up and fed him." She yawned and sat up, shaking herself awake. "And since he usually got hungry as soon as the sun came up, it wasn't really a problem." She gestured at the bag. "Go shopping?"

"Yeah, apparently this place has a little farmers' market on Saturdays, so I grabbed some fruit and stuff for the road."

May laughed. "Don't you ever eat any junk food?"

"Healthy body, healthy mind, as they say."

By this point, May had gotten out of bed and walked over to open the curtains and let some more light into the room. "First time I get a chance, I am buying you, like, potato chips and chocolate. You're waaaay too boring."

"Whatever. They also had Poke Snacks there, which they told me is what attracts wild Pokemon to those Poke Spots, so I decided to stock up on some for when we get to one."

"Oh, that was a good idea. I hope that's soon. I'm looking forward to catching some new friends." She stretched again, and then walked over to the closet where she'd hung the several identical traveling outfits she'd brought with her, picking one out arbitrarily. "We're leaving for the lab pretty soon, I'm guessing?"

Drew nodded. "Pretty soon. I figured you'd want to take advantage of that free continental breakfast one more time, though."

Her eyes lit up. "I forgot about that!" Without a moment's more hesitation, she ran to the bathroom and shut the door to change clothes.

Drew shook his head. "Food. Nothing gets her moving quicker…"

"Welcome back, everyone, to another installment of May's Expeditions!"

May had her fingers out in front of her in the typical camera lens pose, and Drew was staring at her through them as if she was from another planet. "I don't understand what's happening here."

She went on as if she hadn't heard him. "Here we have an obnoxious, stuck-up, rival Coordinator in his natural habitat. You can identify this type of Coordinator by certain distinct features. Note the know-it-all expression, obviously dyed green hair, and ugly teal pants. Now, I know what you're thinking…"

"'Justifiable homicide?'"

"Drew!" She mimed clapping the camera shut. "I can't use any of that footage now!"

"You can't use-" Drew broke off incredulously and threw his hands up in an exaggerated gesture of disbelief. "I give up. My Contest partner is a mental patient. Farewell, sweet Grand Festival dreams."

"I just want to have documentation of this journey!"

"'Documentation?' You're making a fake camera out of your fingers and somehow you're still capable of using a word with five syllables?"

"Aw, c'mon, Drew, it's fun! It's been forever since I've traveled with someone that I could do this kind of thing with."

"What about the voices in your head? One of them must have told you this was perfectly normal behavior."

May sighed. "Oh, you're right, it's goofy. But, you know, when I started traveling, I didn't even have Pokemon with me. I was just in it for the traveling itself. This was my way of making it mean something, I guess. Now that I'm a Coordinator I don't have to do that anymore, huh?" She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, which were still betraying a bit of sadness. And Drew, loath though he was to admit it, didn't like seeing those eyes sad.

He clapped a hand to his forehead in irritation and shook his head heavily. "Alright, fine. Roll the camera."

She brightened immediately. "Really?" She said excitedly.

"Yep. Put 'em up, come on."

"You're not just gonna say a bunch of mean things again?"

"May, do it before I change my mind."

With a grin that now lit up her whole face, she held up her fingers camera-style again. "Action!"

Drew, for all his bravado, was clearly uncomfortable in such a strange situation. "Uh, hi, I'm Drew… and for the record, my hair is all natural…"

The path from Mica City to the Pokemon HQ Lab was almost entirely wooded, and the sun shining through the canopies above them made for a very pretty and comfortable walk.

Unfortunately, May was no longer enjoying it in the least, because she had been assaulted with a massive stomach ache fairly soon after she had finished with her "episode." Drew wasn't enjoying it much either, because of course he was the one who had to hear about the stomach ache constantly.

"Dreeeew, can't we just take a little break? I'm miserable here!"

"Oh, really?" He shot back sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed. And anyway, you brought this on yourself."

"Are you kidding? This is all your fault!"

"How is it possibly my fault?"

"You said there was no way I could eat a dozen pancakes. I had to prove you wrong!"

"No, what I said was, 'May, you probably shouldn't eat a dozen pancakes, because we've got a pretty long walk ahead of us and you'll feel like crap.' And then you said, 'Don't tell me what to do, grasshead!' And then you ate a dozen pancakes."

"That's not what happened!"

They went on in this fashion for some time, but eventually May got distracted. "Wait. Drew, haven't we seen this tree before?"

"No."

"It looks familiar."

"It probably should, considering we're in a forest."

"I'm telling you, we're going in circles!"

And then they stopped to argue about that. Apparently they could only maintain their level of civility on the journey for so long.

"Look, just give me the map, Drew."

"I'm not giving you the-" He stopped shortly. He cocked his head confusedly, and then began looking around.

"Uh, Drew? Something wrong?"

"Shhh. I thought I heard something in the forest. Listen."

May listened. She cupped a hand to her ear and closed her eyes. Before long, they both heard it. Voices coming from the trees around them.

"- thought you had picked up a scent or something."

"Luxray."

"Well, why are you leading, then?"

"Luxray."

"What'd you call me? Overgrown mutt..."

May turned and stared as a tall young man stumbled out of the brush behind her, followed closely by a Luxray that was looking thoroughly unamused by the situation they were in. They both appeared quite disheveled, like they had been wandering around off the actual path for a while.

"Stupid forest, can't believe I got roped into this... Wait a minute, have we seen this tree before?"

"Luxray."

"... I didn't catch that, are you agreeing or...?

"Luxray."

May glanced at Drew, who just shrugged. She turned back to the unfortunate pair and called out to them. "Uh, hi!"

She had clearly caught them by surprise, or at least had done for the human member of the duo, for it took him a moment to register that someone was speaking to him. When he did, though, he whipped his head around towards the source of the voice, relief evident on his face. "Oh, thank Arceus, more people. I thought we were gonna die out here! We're just not cut out for these hot temperatures, right, Luxray?"

"Luxray." The face of the Pokemon betrayed absolutely no emotion, but it must have more than satisfied its trainer.

"Right! Man, even in the shade, I feel like I'm melting." By this point, he was walking over to them, his mouth shaping into a wide smile, and he hadn't stopped talking yet. "I tell you, I liked the open plains a lot better. I don't have the sense of direction for this. How do people find this Lab, anyway? They put it smack in the middle of nowhere! How can they do their research in the middle of nowhere? It's like they-"

"Excuse me!" This was Drew, cutting in quickly. Evidently May was as much of a talker as he could handle, or perhaps he was just in a foul mood as a result of the arguments. "Take a breath for a minute. The heat's gonna be the least of your problems if you run out of oxygen from talking too much."

"Sorry, sorry." The young man said, still smiling. "I'm just glad to finally find some other travelers here. I was about to go crazy with no one but Luxray here to talk to."

"Might be too late," Drew muttered, only loud enough for May to hear.

She gave him a look that seemed to communicate that she thought he was funny but rude, then knelt down to Luxray's height to inspect him for a few seconds before looking back at the trainer. "Can you understand him?"

"Nope. That's what I was afraid was making me crazy." He laughed good-naturedly. "I can usually work out what he means by reading his face, though. He's pretty expressive with that mug of his."

May glanced again at the expression on the Luxray's face that hadn't morphed even a tiny bit since she saw it the first time and then decided to take his word for it. She stood back up with the intention of introducing herself, but was beaten to the punch.

"Wait a sec, you're that one Coordinator girl. May, right? And you're Drew, uh, Hansen? No, Hayden! Hayden." The young man's smile grew wider, if that was possible, and he regarded the two as if really seeing them for the first time, which, if his overall disposition was any indication, he might well have been. "How about that? My rescuers are famous."

"I don't know what we're supposed to be rescuing you from, but yeah, you got us." Drew walked forward and offered his hand. "Fan of Contests, I guess?"

The stranger took the hand and shook it firmly. "Honestly, not really. But I'm covering the Cup, so if anyone asks, I didn't say that. Have to admit you two put on a pretty cool show yesterday, though. Might make an admirer out of me yet."

"Covering?" May studied him curiously, then sudden recognition hit her. "Oh, I know you! You're one of those reporters from Mica City, aren't you?"

"Guilty. Although I wish I could deny that, too."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You were the only one who sounded like you knew what you were talking about."

He chuckled, and waved a hand in a no-big-deal motion. "I was pretty much faking it, but if I had you fooled I guess I was successful. I'm not nearly that smart."

May had a suspicion he was being overly modest, but he kept going before she could say anything. "Anyway, that's not what I mean. I'm more of an intern than anything. The paper I work for couldn't be bothered to send anyone of actual merit to Orre, so they stuck me on the boat instead. Field training, they called it." He laughed derisively, but there was no real malice behind it. "They just wanted to be rid of me. I think they have enough interest in the Orre Ribbon Cup to have eyes on the ground, but not enough to pay for it."

"Oh, so you're not from Orre?" May asked.

"No, that's a slight Sinnoh accent he's got, if I'm not mistaken," Drew commented.

The journalist/intern nodded. "Good ear. Originally from Snowpoint City, born and raised. This climate isn't exactly what I'm used to, which is why I'm dressed so, uh, unprofessionally."

May hadn't consciously noticed, but at the mention of his attire she silently agreed with him. He was clad in a white muscle shirt and a pair of athletic shorts, and for all that was still sweating profusely. Giant beads of perspiration were snaking through a head of neck-length, dark brown hair and running unmolested down his face. It looked as though he had long since given up on trying to wipe any of it away. She guessed he probably wasn't bad-looking cleaned up, though. She didn't envy him. Having to go from a town of perpetual snowfall to a desert region could not have been a pleasant experience.

"Where are my manners, though? My name's Shawn, Shawn Calvert." He seemed to have calmed down considerably now that his alleged near-death experience of being lost in the forest was over, and his excited grin had morphed into a more easy one. "It's nice to meet you two."

May and Drew echoed the pleasantries, then Drew said, "I think I heard you say something about a Lab earlier. Are you going to the Pokemon HQ Lab around here?"

"That's the one. Don't suppose you could point me in the right direction?"

"I think we can do you one better. We're going there ourselves. You're welcome to tag along with us if you want."

May was mildly taken aback at the offer. It must have taken a near-herculean effort to even ask her if she wanted to travel with him, but now her loner friend was giving a newcomer he hadn't known for more than five minutes the same option.

"I would really appreciate that," said Shawn. "You can probably tell my sense of direction isn't my strong suit." He paused, and May could almost see a light bulb going off over his head. "Hey, you think as long as I'm around, you might be willing to give me a few quotes for my pieces? An exclusive interview with the big-shot Contest heartthrobs might earn me a few points with my bosses back home."

"Heart... Throbs?" May's reaction was somewhere between flattery and affrontery, but as far as she could tell the journalist meant no disrespect. He was just enthusiastic. "Are people really calling us heartthrobs?"

"Sure! You hit a lot of people's buttons! You're young, you're innovative, you're kind of a dark horse underdog team from what I'm told since there's a couple of Grand Festival winners here. Plus, you have that whole will-they-or-won't-they thing going on, I guess. People love that stuff."

May turned beet-red. Drew was showing admirable restraint, gazing at Shawn with nothing more than raised eyebrows. It was basically his thoughtful look, May knew. He was probably unaware, she reflected inwardly, that it was as intense as any of his facial expressions and could have a disquieting effect on some people, but then again Shawn didn't seem the type of person to be disquieted by very much.

"I don't see a problem with that," Drew said slowly.

May had recovered, and decided to tease him a little. "You sure, Drew? You don't seem like the type to do interviews like that."

"No such thing as bad press, right? Anyway, we'll do it on one condition." Here he nodded at her. "With my partner's approval, of course. Kindly leave the 'will-they-or-won't-they thing' out of it."

May nodded hurriedly. "Definitely. And it sounds good to me. I think it'll be fun to get interviewed by a real professional writer!"

Shawn folded his hands behind his head nonchalantly. "You flatter me. And that's no problem. I've got no interest in that anyway. Matter of fact, I feel like I should apologize on behalf of my, er, fellow media vultures for that. I think if you're reporting on Contests you should report on Contests. Leave the personal lives out of it. Let the Coordinators do what they like on their own time, right, Luxray?"

"Luxray." It was becoming clear that the Pokemon had a speak-when-spoken-to attitude.

"Good," Drew said. "Just for the record, though, we really aren't together."

"Definitely not," May agreed.

"Nope."

"Mm-hmm."

"I believe you," said Shawn. With that constant grin on his face it was difficult to say whether he actually did or not, but either way he appeared content to leave it at that. "That can be for another day anyway. For now, I think we're off for the Lab?"

With Shawn's surprise appearance, May had forgotten all about her convictions that they were lost, and happily let Drew take the lead with navigating again. He didn't speak much as they walked, content to let the conversations be carried by the much more talkative May and Shawn, who had revealed himself to be a much more normal person than he had seemed at first. He had returned Luxray, explaining that he usually only walked with him when he got lonely.

"So, what made you want to write for a newspaper, Shawn?" May inquired.

Shawn shrugged indifferently. "I don't, really. I'd much rather be an actual author of real books sometime down the line, but apparently that's not a viable career choice unless you already know someone in the business." The last part of that sentence was accompanied by some silly arm-waving and was said in a tone that made it clear he didn't care much for the opinion of whoever it was he was mocking. Who exactly that was was anybody's guess. "Everybody has to pay their dues in some way, though, I guess," he said.

May placed a finger on her chin philosophically. "Huh. I wonder what I'd be doing if I wasn't competing in Contests… Sometimes I'm jealous of people like you who have it all figured out."

"You seem like you're doing pretty well for yourself. Different strokes, right? Plus, I've got a few years on you two. I've done my time. I tried the whole Pokemon journey thing and it was fun, but it just wasn't for me. I'll take a boring old job in the air conditioning any day of the week."

"How come you're taking a detour to the Lab instead of heading straight towards Goldengrove and the next hotel, then?" Drew asked.

"Another interview target. Professor Krane has done a lot of good work in the field of Pokemon research, but he doesn't get much recognition since he works out of a region so far removed from the rest of the world." Shawn had his hands behind his head again, seemingly his go-to position when thinking carefully about something. "From what I've heard about him, I get the impression he's not the kind of man to care about that, but I figured it was worth a shot anyway. How about you two?"

"Professor Krane's a family friend," May answered. "I just wanted to give him a quick hello." She looked at her fellow Coordinator, who had his map out and was inspecting it closely. "How far away are we?"

"It looks like it's just up ahead. We should be there in another twenty minutes."

They were there in fifteen, and completely unprepared for the sight that awaited them. "Disarray" would have been a kind way to describe the state of Orre's famous Pokemon HQ Lab when they arrived. "Chaos" would likely have been more apt.

All around them, as far as the eye could see, Pokemon were running rampant, being chased after by pale scientists who didn't look like they had any business chasing anything, long white lab coats trailing behind them as they tried in vain to get the Pokemon under some semblance of control. Up the steps directly in front of them, a Zigzagoon was, well, zig-zagging its way around the brick path, easily avoiding the clumsy efforts of a gangly researcher to dive on top of it. Elsewhere, a Plusle and Minun had teamed up to cause an extra degree of grief for a particularly unfortunate middle-aged man in overalls, who would repeatedly corner one of them only to be given a light shock by the other. His hair was starting to stick up in arrogant defiance of gravity. The only person around who looked to be having any luck at all was a teenage girl with bright blue hair, who had just managed to return a Baltoy to its Poke Ball and then quickly set off after a Shuppet.

The three errant travelers stood stunned, mouths agape. Even Drew was knocked off balance. May was the first to speak. "What the heck is going on here? Wild Pokemon going crazy? I thought you said there weren't many in this region!" This was directed, naturally, at Drew, who was beginning to realize that most of the blame for what went wrong on this journey was going to fall on him.

"I don't think they're wild. Looks more like some research subjects staged a prison break, so to speak."

Just then, a small Pokemon resembling a large cotton ball floated past them, followed by a woman. Not followed closely, as it is difficult to make any kind of speed in a long pink coat and high heels, but she was certainly trying hard. She stopped for a moment to bend and place her hands on her knees to catch her breath, and May took that opportunity to speak. "Um, excuse me! This is the Pokemon HQ Lab, right?"

The woman straightened and looked to her in surprise. "Yes, but I'm sorry, we're not offering tours at the moment." Another breath. "We've got an escape attempt on our hands at the moment."

"We can see that," Drew said dryly. "Can we help?"

"Are you trainers?"

May opened her mouth, presumably to clarify that they were Coordinators, but Drew got the first word in. "Yes."

"Then you can probably help. Just keep them busy and we'll have their Poke Balls out as soon as possible." She pointed at the retreating cotton ball. "I think Cottonee is the ringleader. He's the first priority."

"May?"

"Yeah, I got it." She took off in its direction.

"Shawn, you think you can-" Shawn must have thought he could, because he was already gone when Drew turned to him.

The woman had regained her breath and now spoke again. "Thank you so much for your help. Just try not to hurt them, please. I don't think they know any better."

"That goes without saying, ma'am. Do you know how many there are?"

"Around a dozen, I think. They should all be in the immediate area; I can't imagine they'd be brave enough to venture any further."

Drew nodded and rushed past her, heading up the steps to aid the poor man with the Zigzagoon.

Around the back of the lab, the Cottonee had backed itself into a corner with May close at its proverbial heels. It was a good thing, she thought, that the dense forest surrounding the lab was blocking any strong gusts of wind that might come through. The small Pokemon looked as though it would fly for miles if someone just decided to blow on it slightly.

It looked around frantically for an avenue of escape, but, finding none, turned and faced the slowly advancing brunette, who was doing her best to appear non-threatening.

"Hi there, little guy." It could easily have been a female, as the finer points of Pokemon biology were all but lost on May, especially for species she'd never seen before, so she hoped the means of reference was nonspecific enough to work. "Why don't you go ahead and come on back inside with me? I know everybody wants to get out and just run around every once and a while, but I'm sure- OOF!"

Cottonee had launched itself straight into May's midsection. It was too crude to be a real Tackle attack, and indeed its tiny stature and soft body made for a less than impressive combination, but it was at least enough to get May to stumble and gawk at the thing, offended. "Hey!"

Cottonee was glaring at her defiantly.

"You've got a big attitude for such a cute little Pokemon," she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. She took a step forward again. "Come on, don't be like this."

Cottonee tried its pseudo-Tackle again, but this time May was ready. She caught it firmly in her arms and was ready to celebrate her cleverness when it began to wriggle free. She had expected that much, but hadn't counted on it being relatively slick, and despite her best efforts it slipped out back into its former position, looking back at her with another glare.

"Cottonee!" It said angrily.

May let out a long breath. This was turning out to be more difficult than she'd anticipated. "Well, if you're not gonna come easily, I guess…" Her hand lowered to the Poke Balls on her belt, but truthfully she wasn't too sure what to do. Her team members were all far too strong to actually battle with; she didn't want to hurt the little Pokemon. Soon, though, an idea struck her.

"Altaria, you're up!"

There was a red flash and the beautiful Humming Pokemon emerged from May's thrown Poke Ball, floating in the air and prepared for battle. May had come across her as a young Swablu outside of Violet City in Johto and formed a speedy rapport with it. She had grown into one of May's most trusted partners, as she was extremely handy in both the Appeal and Battle Rounds of Contests.

Now, though, her stance had morphed into one of total perplexity as she saw the diminutive cotton ball looking bravely up at her, ready for a fight. She looked back at her trainer in bewilderment, who shrugged apologetically. "Yeah, I know. It's a long story. Can you just Sing it to sleep, please?"

Altaria nodded and turned back to the Cottonee. Just as it was opening its beak to Sing, two big Razor Leaf attacks hit her in the head. They glanced off; Altaria had a double resistance to the Grass type and Cottonee was far too weak to overcome that, but it definitely wasn't scared. For the second time Altaria threw a confused glance at May, who again just shrugged her shoulders.

Altaria began another attempt at a Sing attack, but also for the second time was cut off, this time by a relatively strong gust of sparkling wind, which actually knocked her out of the air and back a few feet. She got up quickly, more surprised than anything.

"What was that?" May gasped. "Altaria, are you okay?" At her Pokemon's embarrassed nod, she shook off her shock. "Okay, um… Maybe give it a Peck attack? Not too hard, alright?"

Altaria floated back into the air and then, without warning, dove at the Cottonee, hitting it with a Peck that May could tell was only at about a quarter of the Pokemon's power. It did the job, though, sending it flying backward where it bounced off one of the Lab's walls and hung shakily in the air, still not willing to give up.

"Okay, Altaria, now Sing."

May covered her ears, a practiced reflex, as a soothing melody fell out of Altaria's beak, sending slowly drifting music notes in the Cottonee's direction. The effect was instantaneous. The Pokemon's eyes closed as soon as the song started, and it fell to the ground gently. May walked over and picked it up, cradling it lightly in her folded arms.

"Thanks, Altaria. Return now." Altaria cried her name proudly before being struck by the red light of the Poke Ball, which May fastened tightly to her belt. "Okay, better go see if the others still need any help."

Drew, at the very least, wasn't in need of much help, but to be fair the Pokemon he was dealing with were much more agreeable than the Cottonee had been. He was athletic enough to catch up to the haphazard Zigzagoon without any trouble, which he passed off to the panting researcher who tried and mostly failed to gasp out a thanks. The next order of business was a Slakoth who had made its way up a tree, which he sent Flygon to retrieve. He knew the green dragon had been itching to stretch its wings, so he was killing two Pidgeys with one Rock Throw on that score.

He rounded a corner towards the east branch of the dirt path of the lab, just to make sure no Pokemon had wandered any further than the woman in pink had calculated. He hadn't gotten far when he heard a strange noise coming from the trees to his right.

He stopped, turned, peered into the woods looking for the source. He saw nothing. He listened, but the noise didn't come again.

Drew waited for another moment and then began walking back the way he came. May, knowing her, was probably having trouble with what she was doing and-

He paused. There it was. It sounded like… a sniffle? He took a few cautious steps into the forest, and it was there that he found the source.

Hiding behind a tree was a small, blue and white, bear-like Pokemon, looking up at Drew apprehensively. There was a long string of mucus drooping from its nose, which certainly explained the odd sniffling noise. It didn't look scared, just disoriented. Drew squatted down and raised his hands up in a non-threatening fashion. "Hey, little buddy."

The Pokemon sized him up for a long while and then crept out a little further from behind the tree, seemingly having decided he was in no danger. Drew gave him what he considered to be his most winning smile and went on. "You lost?"

A few seconds passed and then the Pokemon nodded hesitantly.

Drew chuckled. "Yeah, you don't seem like much of an escape artist. Got caught up in all the excitement, huh?"

Another nod.

"Well, come on, then. I'll get you back to the Lab. Just follow me." He straightened and took a preliminary step backward, but was interrupted by another noise. This time it sounded more like a growl. And it was close.

The Coordinator's hand instinctively flew to his belt where his Poke Balls rested, ready to defend himself and the bear cub Pokemon, but almost immediately realized it was unnecessary, as the noise had come from the bear cub itself. Or, more accurately, its stomach.

Drew chuckled again, and then shook his backpack off his shoulders and onto the ground, reaching inside and pulling out an Oran Berry. He offered it in an outstretched hand, and the Pokemon crept forward slowly and took it, using both hands to shove it in its mouth and chewing it quickly. The taste must have been agreeable to it, for it grinned happily and spoke for the first time. "Cubchoo!"

"'Cubchoo,'" Drew repeated. "So that's what you're called? You must be from a pretty far-off region or something; I've never heard of a species called Cubchoo before…"

The Cubchoo didn't respond, just looked up at him with big oval eyes. If it had any lingering doubts about him, they were gone now.

He shrugged. "Guess I can ask the Professor. Let's go, Cubchoo."

Minutes later, Drew and May were inside the Lab, in the midst of assisting the staff in returning all of the Pokemon to their respective Balls when the woman in pink entered from outside. "Do you two have any idea where that other friend of yours went? He helped us get our Meditite back but I haven't seen him since and we still have one Pokemon not accounted for…"

They shook their heads no, but as if on cue, the doors opened and Shawn strode in. Luxray was trailing close at his heels, carrying the unmoving form of a Lombre on his back. The woman gave him a disapproving look, but he was smiling, unconcerned. "Don't worry, it's just paralyzed. We had a little bit of a disagreement about its coming back inside, but Luxray hit it with a Thunder Wave and it suddenly saw things my way. Here." He lifted Lombre off of Luxray's back and set it down on a nearby table, recalling the Gleam Eyes Pokemon afterwards. "Is that everyone?"

The woman took one last head count and then nodded. "It looks like it." She gave the trio a pleasant smile. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Lily Evans, the second-in-command here. Thank you all so much for your help." They gave her the usual "you're welcomes" and "no big deals" and she went on. "That was something of an awkward situation, I apologize. One of the newer aides took his eyes off of Cottonee to check something on his monitor and before he knew what was happening, the little troublemaker was going around and releasing all of his friends. They ran out of the building before we could stop them and, well, you saw what happened then. I don't know what we'd have done if you hadn't happened by when you did. I guess Jovi would have had to handle all of them."

"Um, who's Jovi?" May asked. Cottonee was still in her arms, slumbering peacefully.

"Oh, sorry, that's my daughter. You probably saw her; she was the girl with the blue hair."

"Oh, her. Yeah, she seemed to know what she was doing."

Lily nodded and smiled again. "She's a talented trainer," she said proudly. "Takes after her brother in that respect. But she's never wanted to go on a journey anywhere but around Orre. She likes just staying around here and helping with the research. All the Pokemon really love her."

As if taking another cue, the girl in question had just stepped out of the elevator on the far side of the room, and she now walked over to the group, the Plusle and Minun from earlier riding on her shoulders. "Okay, Mom, Pluplu and Mimi apologized to Adon. Is everything under control?"

"Thanks to these three." Lily gestured at the travelers. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your names."

Introductions were exchanged. Jovi was quite bubbly for a girl whom May judged to be about the same age as her. It was easy to see why all the Pokemon would be so fond of her.

"So you two are Coordinators? That's so cool! I think I'd probably be one, too, if I was going to go on a Pokemon journey." She threw a wide grin at her mother. "I can't, though. This place wouldn't make it a week without me around."

May laughed. "You'll have to let me know if you ever change your mind. I can give you some awesome tips."

"I have a tip for you, too. Don't take hers." This, inevitably, came from Drew, who was rewarded with an icy glare.

Jovi, however, giggled, then gasped and clapped both hands over her mouth. She jumped up and down a couple of times excitedly. "Wait a minute, I recognize you now! You're that Drew guy who's in the magazines sometimes! I know one of them just had those pictures of you at the beach a couple of months ago!"

Drew visibly flushed. "Oh, Arceus, you saw those? Just, uh, for the record, those pictures were taken without my knowing…" He could see May out of the corner of his eye positively beaming at the fact that he had something embarrassing happen to him. I'll never hear the end of this, he thought.

Jovi clapped. "This is so exciting! Celebrities at the Lab! Oh! And aren't you two dating?" They both opened their mouths to protest, but she was on a roll and wasn't stopping. "How cute! What a story! Two ex-rivals coming together in romance… Aww, and you even act like it. All the teasing and stealing glances when the other isn't looking-"

"We don't do that!" May was as red as her bandanna and looked like she was trying to make herself as small as possible. Drew was merely palming his face like he couldn't believe that the rumors had spread this far.

"Uh, can I have a turn now?" Shawn had his hand raised like a timid student in a classroom. "First off, I think you, miss Jovi, should put down the tabloids and pick up a novel every now and again." His gaze shifted to Lily. "Ma'am, is Professor Krane around? I was hoping to at least get a quick interview with him."

"Oh, yeah!" May was eternally grateful for the change of subject. "That's actually why me and Drew came, too. I mean, not to interview him, but my father knows the Professor and I wanted to say hello."

"Yes, he's in his office, I believe. He locks himself in there sometimes when he's hard at work, but I'll go get him. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."

She departed and the four teenagers were left on their own, the rest of the staff having already gone in the midst of the conversation. Jovi was looking at the ground uncomfortably. "Er, sorry if I embarrassed you guys. I'm just a little starstruck, I guess. We don't get a lot of visitors here, and none of them are famous. Well, except my brother, that is."

May blinked. "Who's your brother?"

"Oh, you haven't heard of him? He's the one who took down the Cipher criminal organization seven years ago. Now he's off who-knows-where training. I don't get why, since he's already gotta be the strongest trainer in the world, but that's his thing."

"Wait, I remember reading about the fall of Cipher. That was your brother?" Shawn asked incredulously. "Wow, now that would be a big interview. Do you have a number I could reach him at?"

"You know, for someone who says he hates working for a newspaper, you sure seem eager to get the big scoop," Drew remarked.

"If you had to work as an unpaid intern, you'd do whatever you could to scrounge up a promotion, too."

Drew made another snide comment, but May wasn't listening anymore. She pointed at the Plusle and Minun on Jovi's shoulders. "So these are your Pokemon, huh?"

"Yep!" She replied cheerfully. "They weren't trying to escape like all the others, they were just messing with poor Adon because they were bored." She stopped as the pair nuzzled her cheeks affectionately. "They picked that up from me in my younger years, I'm afraid."

Lily returned just then with a bespectacled, unassuming man in a long lab coat. He took a long look at May and then gave her a kind smile. "You're May Maple? Gosh, last time I saw you you didn't even come up to my waist. Look at you all grown up."

"Professor Krane!" She cried. She gingerly placed Cottonee down on the table and then ran over, embracing him eagerly. "It's so good to see you!"

"You as well," the professor said, returning the hug. "How is Norman? I haven't spoken to him in a long while."

"He's good! Still winning more than he loses." May released him and grinned. "He's got so much time on his hands now that me and Max are both gone that he trains like a crazy man."

"That sounds like him, all right." He took a step towards Drew and Shawn and offered his hand. "You must be May's friends. John Krane, it's nice to meet you." There was another brief round of introductions and then Krane looked at Shawn. "Lily tells me you're a writer, and you want to interview me, eh?"

"If it's not too much trouble, yes sir."

"No trouble at all, but you might be disappointed. I'm not as interesting as you might think." Krane clasped his hands behind his back and half-turned. "Come with me, everybody. I'll give you a tour and then you can stay for dinner if you want. That should give us all plenty of time to talk."

The tour took very little time for such a large laboratory. Krane didn't bother going into the finer details of the research equipment, knowing most of the information would go over the heads of his guests. Also, it was already late in the afternoon and he didn't want to hold them up for too long.

Dinner, conversely, was a rather magnificent affair. The rarity of visitors to the Lab gave the chef little opportunity to show off, so he took full advantage of the excuse afforded him this night. And, in turn, May of course took full advantage of the offerings, having forgotten about her stomach ache from earlier. She feasted liberally. It all made for a very pleasant evening. Shawn got his quotes from Krane, May was able to catch up with him somewhat, and Drew mostly just listened politely, hardly able to get a word in edgewise when the table was full of animated talkers.

All too soon, though, it came time to leave. If the trio was able to put a bit more distance behind them before setting up camp for the night, they would make it to Goldengrove, the site of the next Contest, by the following night.

Krane had excused himself a few moments before they stood up from the table and now returned, holding a Poke Ball in his hand. Before anyone could ask about it, he held it out to May, who gave him a blank look. "What's this?"

"My personal thank you for assisting with the Pokemon earlier. I'd like you to take Cottonee with you."

The blank look turned to one of total astonishment. "What?"

"It sounds like you had quite a time with her earlier." May had recounted her difficulties with the Pokemon at dinner to much laughter from the rest of the table. "To tell the truth, she's more trouble than she's worth at this juncture. We've more or less finished with our research on her and she's been acting out like this more and more often lately. I think she needs to get out and see the world, and it sounds as though you handled her very well. I trust you to take good care of her, May."

"Someone trusts May?" Drew said, sarcasm oozing from his voice. "These truly are end times."

It was a testament to how taken aback May was by the whole situation that she didn't even pay attention to him. She reached out her hand with some hesitance and took the Ball from Krane, looking at it uncertainly. "Are you sure?"

Krane smiled. "I'm sure. She's in good hands with Norman Maple's daughter."

Soon May returned the smile. "Okay then. I promise I'll train her really well! Thank you so much!"

"How nice," Shawn said. "I'm gonna have to work this into the article."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be a big help in our Contests. Thanks, Professor," said Drew.

"You're quite welcome. Just a couple of things: Cottonee evolve through use of a Sun Stone, so if you find one over the course of your journey, give some thought to using it. According to my colleague in Unova, the evolved form is a speedy little thing."

"Ah, so Cottonee are native to Unova, huh? That explains why I've never seen one before."

"Indeed. Also, they are part Fairy-Type. That attack she used on your Altaria earlier was likely Fairy Wind, which is super-effective against Dragons. There aren't too many Pokemon of that type known, and they aren't very well understood yet. It could give you a great edge in your Contests."

"I didn't even know there was such thing as a Fairy Type," Drew commented.

"Me neither. That's so cool, though!" May added.

"That's one of the biggest reasons we had her here: researching the type," Krane said absentmindedly. "It would've been nice to have a pure Fairy-type, but this was the best we could do as of right now. Oh, before I forget, let me give you my P-DA number in case you have any more questions."

"Um, will that work?" May asked. "We only have PokeNavs."

"If they're the PokeNav Plus version, they'll work just fine. They're programmed to handle communication between devices of any region."

He recited the number to May, who entered it into her PokeNav carefully and then grinned again. "Well, thanks again, Professor Krane!"

"Yeah, we'd like to stay longer, but we should really get going," Drew said. "We've still got some ground to cover before- huh?" He'd been interrupted by a gentle but earnest tugging on his pants, and when he looked down he was surprised to find the Cubchoo from earlier as the culprit. Having gotten Drew's attention, the little cub pointed its paw up at the Poke Balls on his belt. "Um, I'm sorry, I don't know what you're trying to tell me."

It was Jovi who stepped forward with an explanation. "I think Cubchoo's saying he wants to go with you, too, Drew."

"Wait, really?" Drew looked up at Krane skeptically. "Oh, I couldn't do that. We've already taken one Pokemon from you."

"Aww, but he's so cute!" May exclaimed, kneeling down to get a closer look. Then, remembering her manners, said, "Er, but you're right. You've been way more than generous already."

They were both surprised when Krane gave another of his kindly smiles and shook his head. "It's not up to me. If Cubchoo wants to go with Drew, who am I to stop him? That'd hardly be fair." He turned his eyes upon the Pokemon in question. "Is that what you want, Cubchoo?"

Cubchoo cried out its name and nodded its head eagerly, the string of nasal mucus swinging back and forth.

"It's settled, then. There's nothing more important than a Pokemon's happiness," said Krane. "Jovi, would you go get the Poke Ball, please?"

"Sure! You're so lucky, Drew. Cubchoo's a real sweetheart. Don't let him fool you, though, he can be quite a battler when he's motivated."

She headed towards one of the offices. Krane adjusted his glasses. "Speaking of battling, I imagine you're probably wondering about the, er, snot. As best we can tell, that's the source of power for his attacks. You might've guessed he's an Ice-type. Be sure to keep him healthy, if he gets sick, the mucus gets watery and his attacks are less effective." Krane scratched his head awkwardly. "It's not very scientific, but that's actually how we originally figured that out."

Drew nodded his thanks, and by this time Jovi had reappeared with the Poke Ball. She tossed it to Drew, who squatted down as he had earlier, face to face with Cubchoo. "You sure about this, little buddy?"

Cubchoo nodded once more and reached out its paw, touching the button on the front of the Ball. The red light flashed out and captured him, and suddenly Drew had a new member of the team.

Shawn had watched these proceedings with his easy smile on his face all the while, and now folded his hands behind his head and laughed. "No wonder you two have so much success. Even the Pokemon can tell you're good people."

"Yep, Drew sure has Cubchoo fooled," May teased.

Drew rolled his eyes, stood up and turned to Krane, Lily, and Jovi. "Thank you very much. He's in very good hands. And thank you for your hospitality as well."

May and Shawn echoed the expressions of gratitude and they all made their way to the door, escorted by the three Lab workers. "Thank you for stopping by," Krane said. "Tell your father to get out of the Gym every once in a while, May. Maybe come see us over in Orre sometime."

"I sure will! Thanks again!"

"Good luck in the Ribbon Cup, you two!" Jovi said enthusiastically. Pluplu and Mimi, back on her shoulders, cried out in agreement.

"We'll keep up with your progress," Lily added. "I'm sure you'll do great."

The travelers walked down the path away from the Lab, turned to give Krane and the others a last wave goodbye, and headed back into the forest. May was holding Cottonee's Poke Ball at arm's length, gazing at it joyfully. "What a fun day! I can't believe I have a Fairy-type now. Those other Coordinators are never gonna see this coming!"

"It should definitely give us some more versatility," Drew said thoughtfully. "You actually had a good idea about going to the Lab, May."

May made a big show of gasping and stopping dead in her tracks. "Drew Hayden just complimented me? Said I had a good idea? Did I hear that right?"

"I heard it too," said Shawn. "It even sounded like he meant it."

"Oooooh, this calls for another installment of 'May's Expeditions!' Come on, Drew, say something to the camera."

"No, May, not again. No, put your fingers down, once was already one time too many. Come on, I'm not doing this again..."

AN: Yeah, a lot happened here. Over eight thousand words. It's long, but I really couldn't justify splitting this up anywhere. There was nothing in here that felt like a chapter end except, well, the actual end. "Action-packed" might be a stretch but I'll settle for entertaining, I hope.

I figured this was a good way to get around the scarcity of wild Pokemon in Orre. I didn't want to just have Drew and May get one new team member apiece in the story, but that was realistically what was going to happen if I didn't get creative. Thus, gifts. I hope the misadventures at the Lab made for enough of an interesting plot that getting to them actually receiving the Pokemon didn't feel like a chore. Hopefully those of you who've played the Orre games appreciated seeing a few of the characters from them. I kind of took some liberties with Jovi, since I figured she'd probably grow out of that annoying habit of referring to herself in the third-person, but I don't think that's a stretch.

Also, yes, we have an OC traveling partner. That probably raises some eyebrows for a few people, because it usually does for me, but not to worry, Shawn won't be an overpowered Mary Sue that takes over the story. He's in because traveling groups of three, I think, are more interesting than just two. There's another reason, too, but that won't become clear until the very end. Long story short, he'll hang around at least for a while but not do anything very significant. This is still a May and Drew fic.

And speaking of which, I hope everyone's enjoying the subtle nods I'm giving the romance part of the story. I know it's not a focus right now, and that's by design. I hate quick-moving romances. The ship teases developed at a snail's pace in the anime, and I'm trying to stay true to that because at the moment they're more focused on the Ribbon Cup than how cute the other one is. It's there, and each of them is acutely aware of it as far as their own selves are concerned and it rears its head with some frequency, but they aren't letting it control them. That's how a lot of teenage crushes are. For you readers that love the fluff, I hope you're enjoying the story anyway. If not, that's fine too. I knew when I began this fic that it wouldn't be for everyone. I hope you'll stick it out regardless, because I have faith in my ability to make the slow development worth it in the end.

That's all for this time, folks. Next chapter is the Goldengrove Contest. Thanks for reading, and I'll see ya then.