You Shine Brighter

Here We Go Again

May was up bright and early the next morning. There was a week before the first contest, and this was day one of her assigned training sessions.

She went to the contest hall and clocked in. Felt like a part-time job. Inside the training room was a huge gym, full of obstacle courses and different challenges for Pokemon. There were also courses outside, for the trainer's choosing. May sent out Glaceon and had it start off by firing ice beam at the moving targets. She slowly elevated to things like jumping through the rings of fire and into the pool of water, crafting different things out of ice with every splash.

Six hours passed. Glaceon was exhausted. May called her Pokemon back and clocked out. She repeated this routine for the next few days, as required. Both she and Glaceon were completely beat by the end. On the last day, she was waiting around in the clocking room with a couple other trainers for the last few minutes to pass, since administration was so strict about not leaving early.

She held Glaceon's Pokeball in her hand. "Man, this whole mandatory training thing is crazy," she muttered under her breath.

"Tell me about it, girl. It's RIDICULOUS," a guy in the room blurted out. "Apparently they think that because we're experienced, we need to be challenged so intensely that we're sure to put on a good show. Um, excuse me, but I don't remember signing up for this when I went into the coordinating business..."

This earned him friendly laughs from the others in the room. He seemed like a naturally funny, sassy guy.

"Ha, I can definitely agree with that! Hi, I'm May."

"I'm Nate," he said. "Ugh, these last minutes take FOREVER. It's still only 4:55."

"It's actually 4:56," his friend said.

"It is four, FIFTY FREAKING SIX."

Nate continued entertaining the whole room with his antics. He was a fun person. He and May trained together the next couple days and became friends. They would soon face off in the semi-final round of the Ringtown contest.

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It was that time again. Time to train like there was no tomorrow. Time to finally win a ribbon cup. Drew arrived at Olive Jungle and registered for his training. It wasn't a city, so there wasn't much there. Just the contest hall, a Pokemon Center, and a couple small shops and cafes.

He sent out Absol and had it run through the outdoor obstacle course. He spent extra time practicing its razor wind move, as it had always struggled with that attack in the past. He wasn't particularly worried about this first contest, as there would be many after it and he felt pretty confident already. He was more concerned about staying on top of his game so that May wouldn't advance ahead of him in her training. It had only been a day since they went separate ways, but he was already so eager for their next battle.

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The day came. Both May and Drew battled it out in their respective contests. The fire was burning once again.

May lost to Nate in the semi-finals of the Ringtown contest. Drew on the other hand won the final round in his contest and received his first Fiore ribbon. He was already on his way.

They received their next location assignments. May to Sekra Range; Drew to Lyra Forest. They made their travels, wondering if they'd run into each other on the way.

They never did.

Not this time, and not on the many times after.

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Time passed. Day and night they trained and prepared for contests. They were being sent all over the map, never being in the same area as each other. But eventually, they started getting so caught up in the madness that they rarely thought about each other at all anymore. Competing felt more important. It was all that their lives were anymore.

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A/N: Random background info you probably don't care about: Nate is obviously a character I made up, and he's actually based on a guy I work with; literally the sassiest man I know XD lol. A lot of this story was inspired by my workplace, so that kind of stuff is probably gonna come out a lot.