Here it is, my first two-parter. I plan to do these at every halfway mark, and during every climax. In case you couldn't tell by that statement, we are now one chapter away from the halfway point of this fic. I will be using this format of marking the halfway point in every instalment of the Trainer's Guide to the Pokémon World, so hopefully I can get it right here. This is a scene I've been looking forward to writing for a while now. Enjoy.
Chapter 43:
Team Terra's Trap Part 1: All Out Assault
Max is woken up this morning by the strange sound of nervous pacing coming from outside. Opening the door of his tent, he sees that Bonnie is nervously walking around their campsite, staring out to the foliage that surrounds their campsite. He sees Dedenne standing nervously on her shoulder, clutching his new mega stone tightly, as though he's ready to mega evolve at a moment's notice. "What's the matter?" he asks, stretching as he does so. Bonnie is startled by his sudden appearance and she turns to look at him. Max is given the fright of his life when he sees that her eyes are glowing blue. Bonnie stares at Max with a puzzled expression for a few seconds, before shaking her head, allowing her eyes to return to normal.
"I woke up this morning with a big sense of dread, similar to the one I got that day that those Demolition Duo guys attacked us, only this one's a lot worse," she explains. "Not to mention I'm getting a slight headache. I think me Aura is trying to warn me that there's danger coming, so I'm scanning our surroundings for any threatening Aura." Max nods his head, seeing that it made sense. However, there's something that confused him a bit. "Why did you look at me with a puzzled expression?" he asks. Bonnie looks at him with confusion for a few seconds before realising what he's talking about. "Oh that!" she exclaims. "You know how Ash said people's Aura will be either red or blue?" Max nods. "Well, for some reason yours was green." This causes Max some great confusion. But instead of sitting there puzzling over it until his brain hurts, he decides to drop it. "Why don't you ask Ash about it in Lumiose?" he asks. "We're almost there." Bonnie nods in agreement, then the two set about making breakfast or packing their things away.
When they're finished with the packing, the pair resume their journey. At the rate they're going, they should reach Lumiose by the next day. If they ran they could reach it before this day is done, but neither of them feels like doing that. So instead, they walk at a leisurely pace, with Max speaking into an audio log, documenting every pokémon that catches his eye. Dedenne runs around between their legs, his new mega stone tied around his waist. Bonnie keeps half an eye out for danger. Her Aura hasn't stopped warning her since she woke up that morning, and it's making her extremely nervous. But so far, nothing has happened. That is, until they cross a small bridge to get over a river. When they do, Bonnie's head pounds, and her dread spikes. Acting instinctively, she dives onto Max, knocking him to the ground. When they do, they narrowly avoid a tripwire, that triggers and explosion, completely destroying the bridge.
They struggle to their feet and Bonnie switches her Aura on. "Oh my Arceus!" she whimpers. "We're totally surrounded by red Aura. We need to get out of here!" "Oh, you're not going anywhere!" came a familiar voice from behind them. They wheel around, to see Admin Momiji approaching them. Looking around, Max also sees 4 other people dressed exactly like her surrounding them. Max sees Homura and Kasei amongst them, as well as two other Admins, one that he doesn't recognise, and one that he does. The one that he recognises is a man with spiky blue hair, but those are all the details he can make out from the mask. As for the other Admin, she's a shortish woman with orange hair that falls to her shoulders, but that's all Max can get from her.
Following behind them are 5 other people right behind them, dressed similarly, but without the masks. Max sees Sub-Admins C and F amongst them. After them are even more agents, with Sarah and Sam standing behind C. Homura laughs merrily upon seeing them. "Well now, this should be fun," he says. "You've avoided us for so long that we can no longer take any chances." Momiji steps forward a bit and continues for him. "Which is why we've got all 5 of our Admins here to bring you down. Allow me to introduce the other two that I assume you've yet to meet. Over there is Admin Bannai," she points to the man Max recognises. "And over there is Admin Angie," she points to the woman. The man, Bannai, steps forward too. "Oh, Max and I have met before," he says. "He and his sister were a couple pains in the neck a few years back."
This causes Max to freeze. He knows that voice. If he recalls correctly, Bannai was once a member of Team Aqua. Momiji grins and turns to look at Angie. "You'll like these two as well you know," she says. "They're good friends with Ash Ketchum." This causes Angie to clench her fists a bit. "That brat will pay," she mutters. "I'm going to enjoy destroying his friends." Max and Bonnie look at each other nervously. But they realise that they have no other choice. So, they pull out all 5 of their pokémon. Max mega evolves his Gallade, who gives a battle cry to show he's ready. Bonnie does the same with Dedenne, who gives a very excited squeak at this prospect. In response, the over 30 agents send out their own pokémon. "We underestimated you last time," C tells them. "We won't be making the same mistake twice!" With that, everyone sends out an attack at once.
But before anything could land, Bonnie lets out a shriek, and her Aura blasts outwards, knocking the attacks away and all Team Terra agents off their feet. She slumps a bit, but Max catches her before she can fall. "Why did you do that?" he asks her. "I couldn't control it," she replies. "I was so scared that it all just burst out." Max helps her to her feet, and is about to make a run for it, when the agents manage to get to their feet and resume their attacks. However, luckily for Max and Bonnie, seeing how easily the opponent's pokémon could be knocked over spurred their pokémon on, and they manage to fend for themselves. The duo don't even have to give any orders, which allows Bonnie to close her eyes for a few seconds to regain some strength. While she does that, Kirlia and Mega Dedenne wait behind to guard the two while the rest of their pokémon deal with Team Terra's pokémon.
Treecko is holding his own against two Golems, since he's a grass type. He uses Leech Seed on them to keep regenerating his health while he fights them. He also needs to contend against a few other pokémon that take him by surprise. He's about to be hit by a hyper beam, when Mega Gallade swoops in and manages to cut through it. Then, he slashes at the pokémon that launched the attack, knocking it out pretty quickly. Both Treecko and Mega Gallade nod to each other, then Treecko resumes his fight while Gallade charges towards some more enemy pokémon who've got Talonflame pinned. Talonflame spots Gallade and the two instigate a combo move, knocking out a few of the surrounding enemies. Gallade then engages a Lucario, while Talonflame Flame Charges herself through several more pokémon, before coming to a stop next to Luxio. the two stand and fly back to back, fending off any enemies they can. Then, Luxio notices some pokémon are running towards Bonnie and runs after them, shocking them with Spark before they can hit her. He misses a few others, but Dedenne manages to shock them quickly.
He and Luxio agree to trade places, and Dedenne goes charging into the fray, setting off an ultra charged Discharge, striking several enemy pokémon with his attack. Pyroar runs up to Dedenne and knocks his ball of electricity around, stunning several more pokémon. Pyroar uses their stunning to knock them all out with her claws. Fennekin hops onto her back and the two launch powerful fire attacks in circles going in opposite directions. Once that's done, Fennekin hops off Pyroar's back and runs around a few other pokémon, using scratch all the while. She reaches Pidgeotto, who's busy fighting off a few other flying types. She lowers herself down and allows Fennekin to jump on her back. Fennekin does so, and stands on Pidgeotto while she flies around the battlefield. While Pidgeotto flies, Fennekin launches more fire attacks down on enemies. She then hops off of Pidgeotto to go help Treecko, while Pidgeotto swoops down to aid Kirlia, who's having difficulty holding back a few pokémon advancing upon her mistress. Pidgeotto whips them all up in a whirlwind, allowing Kirlia some breathing room, before she slams them all down on the ground with telekinesis. A few pokémon manage to slip through Pidgeotto's whirlwind and try to attack Kirlia, but Mightyena rushes in and takes them all out. Kirlia thanks him, to which he nods. Then, he runs back into the fray and sends several pokémon flying backwards with a loud snarl.
However, this winning streak didn't last for long. Soon enough, the sheer number of pokémon they have to deal with begins to tire them out. The first to go is Max's Pidgeotto, who falls to a Gliscor striking her in her wings. Max returns her quickly before she hits the ground. Bonnie's Talonflame is the next pokémon to fall. She puts up a good fight, but is unfortunately taken down by a well aimed rock throw from a Golem. After her is Max's Gallade. He's tired out from his fight against Lucario, but still manages to beat it. However, shortly after that he gets into a fight against 3 flying types, and doesn't stand a chance. He falls to the ground after a few seconds of intense fighting, and his mega form disappears. Fennekin faints not long after, having taken a shot that was meant for Treecko. Enraged, Treecko goes on the offence, cutting through as many enemies as he can. However it isn't long before he too falls.
Luxio is the next pokémon to go down. In all the commotion of their pokémon getting defeated, Bonnie fails to notice an attack coming her way. Luxio does however and jumps in front of it, taking the hit and being knocked out. Dedenne is the next to fall, having been picked up and slammed into the ground a few times by a few flying types. Mightyena tries to save him, but he's struck by a fairy type attack knocking him into Dedenne. The force of this knocks Dedenne out, and he loses his Mega form too. Mightyena struggles to his feet and manages to put up a courageous fight, before he too succumbs to the battle. The last to fall in the battle is Pyroar. She fights the most viciously of all of Max's pokémon. She doesn't do more than make the enemy pokémon faint, but she's able to take on the most amount of pokémon single-handed. But eventually, even she is overwhelmed by the battle, and faints.
Max and Bonnie's jaws drop. Their teams had been completely annihilated, while Team Terra still have some pokémon left in fighting form. The only one that either of them have left was Kirlia, who looks absolutely terrified of the prospect of having to defend Max and Bonnie on her own. Sub-Admin F steps forward with a triumphant grin on his face. "Looks like we win at last," he says gleefully. "Now for some payback." As he approaches the pair, he cracks his knuckles menacingly. "F wait!" Momiji shouts. "The Boss wants them both to live to see this new world!" F chuckles darkly at this. "He said he wants them to live," he replies. "He said absolutely nothing about unharmed!" Then, he resumes his approach. Max clutches his bag tightly, trying to think of ways out of this situation. He needs to get Bonnie out of there, since she hasn't fully recovered from her blast yet. But before he can do anything, something glows before the two of them.
Kirlia begins to change shape. She grows taller, and her skirt elongates. Soon enough, she's no longer a Kirlia, but now a Gardevoir. Bonnie sees then and smiles happily. Then she gets to her feet. Everyone braces themselves, ready to battle a Mega Gardevoir. But instead, Bonnie just shouts, "Gardevoir, teleport us out of here!" Without waiting to be told twice, Gardevoir emits a bright light, enveloping herself, Bonnie, Max, and Max's bag inside it. When the light is gone, so are they. F curses and punches a tree. Homura approaches Momiji to speak with her. "Ok, we tried to do this your way, and that totally failed!" "Not quite," Momiji replies. "The Gardevoir was weakened from the fighting, so they can't have gone far." Homura grins a bit at this. "That's good," he says. "Means we haven't lost yet. But when we catch up with them, we're doing this my way." As he says this, he taps a few buttons on his gloves, causing his hand to start crackling with electricity. Homura watches this happen, then starts to laugh maniacally.
Hopefully you enjoyed that fight, because I worked really hard on it. In case you couldn't tell, that fight was inspired by those action scenes that follow characters and swap between who their following, making it look like it's all done in one take. I love those fights. But now you're probably wondering what the crackling hand means. Well, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out, in the second half of the two-parter. I'll see you all then.