Here's the second half of this two-parter. After this, I'm going to take a week off of writing in order to work out the second half of this fic. So once this chapter is up, there won't be a new one until next Tuesday, because I've been writing almost everyday these past few months, so I need a week off to plan this next part out. Also, I have another fic I want to get started on, so that needs planning out too. But anyway, here's the end of the first half of the Kalos Arc.

Chapter 44:

Team Terra's Trap Part 2: Race to Lumiose

Max and Bonnie reappear about a kilometre or so away from where they had been surrounded. Gardevoir slumps down, utterly exhausted. Max gets to his feet quickly, then helps Bonnie up. "Can you stand?" he asks. Bonnie nods, getting up on somewhat shaky legs, then walks over to Gardevoir. "You did amazing Gardevoir, thank you" she says, before pulling out her pokéball and returning her to it. "So, now that we now longer have any pokémon, what do we do now?" she asks Max. Max pulls out his phone and checks the map. "We're not far from Lumiose," he says. "If we run, we might make it there in time." At Bonnie's look of confusion, he adds, "If we get to Lumiose, we can lose them in the crowd. And anyway, they can't come into the city, they'll be arrested on sight. It gives us the perfect opportunity to escape." Bonnie nods, then the two proceed to run towards the city.

However, they only manage to run for 2 kilometres when they hear a bellow from above them. Looking up, they spot Admin Homura charging down at them from the trees. Max grabs Bonnie and quickly pulls her out of the way. Homura slams down on the ground and to Max and Bonnie's amazement, there seems to be some sort of electrical blast coming from the gloves he's wearing as his fists make contact with the ground. But before they have a chance to react to this, Bonnie shoves Max forward, and Admin Bannai slams down right where they were just standing. Once again, an electrical blast comes from the spot where his gloves make contact with the ground. Max suddenly hears an electrical buzzing and wheels around. Admin Momiji comes charging out of the trees as well, aiming right for Bonnie with her fist. Max ducks and pulls Bonnie down with him, allowing Momiji to sail over their heads. as she does, Max instinctively kicks upwards, knocking her down. Then he pulls Bonnie up and the two make a run for it.

But as they run, Momiji shouts, "Stop them now!" At that moment, Sub-Admins C and F lunge out, grabbing hold of the two of them and holding them in place. Admins Kasei and Angie jump out from the trees as well, ready to strike. 3 more Sub-Admins showed up as well to help C and F in keeping them pinned. Max starts frantically analysing the situation. "There has to be a way out!" he thinks to himself. "There just has to be!" As he's looking, Bonnie begins to hyperventilate. Seeing this, Max starts to panic silently. As helpful as her blasts could be, having to lug her all the way to Lumiose while running from these lunatics will be way too difficult. Max manages to wrench his arm free from one of the Sub-Admins' grip and began to rub Bonnie's back in a vain effort to calm her down. "Please don't release a blast," he whispers. "Please don't release a blast, please don't release a blast!"

While he does this, Homura, Momiji, and Bannai approach the pair. As they do, one of the Sub-Admins holding Bonnie squeezes her tighter. This Sub-Admin is a woman about the same age as Momiji, but she has green hair that falls to her shoulders, green lipstick, and green eyes. Seeing her causes Bonnie's hyperventilating to get worse. "B, loosen your grip a bit, you're hurting her," Momiji commands. "We don't want her exploding on us, do we?" Sub-Admin B laughs at this, but loosens her grip. Seeing an opportunity to stall while he works on a plan, Max asks, "So, I take it B was also a member of Team Flare?" B laughs at this. "Well now, aren't you observant," she says sarcastically. "Yes I am, but what of it?" "I just noticed you seem to be particularly angry with Bonnie, similar to how Homura and Bannai, or should I say, Tabitha and Brodie!" Bannai swore at that, while Homura chuckled. "Told you he'd figure us out" he said, before pulling off his mask. Sure enough, there was Tabitha, glaring at Max. Bannai sighs and follows suit, revealing himself to be Brodie.

"Never thought I'd see you two working together," Max continues, desperately darting his eyes around the place for an escape. "Desperate times call for desperate measures?" Brodie scowls at this. "We were convinced by-" Brodie says what must've been the first syllable of their boss's name, but he's interrupted by Tabitha elbowing him. "Don't be a moron!" he shouts. Brodie turns to face Tabitha and readies his fists to strike back. F, who's holding onto Max, lets go a little bit to ready himself to intervene between the two, which gives Max the opening he was looking for. He shoves F off of him, before spinning around and kicking C in the shins. B readies herself to strike him, but before she can he punches her in the face, then pulls Bonnie free from her and the other Sub-Admin. Then the two make a run for it. "After them!" Momiji shrieks. "Don't let them get away!" All of Team Terra's agents who're involved in the trap spring out from the foliage and run after them.

Max leads the way through the forest, guiding Bonnie along by holding her hand. Once she assures him that she's got enough strength to run on her own, she takes over leading the way to Lumiose. As they run, they need to dodge around several attacks from Team Terra and their pokémon. Max uses a revive on Gallade, then summons him and has him cut down several trees along their way to give them a better chance to escape. The knocked down trees forces Team Terra to swerve around them to keep running after them. The Admins and Sub-Admins followed along from the tops of the trees, but Gallade's tree cutting knocks a few of them to the ground. Admin Kasei falls on top of them and they narrowly manage to avoid whatever blast comes from their gloves. They keep running for several minutes, before their luck finally runs out.

Tabitha leaps down from a tree right in front of them. Before Max or Bonnie have a chance to react, Tabitha taps a few buttons on his glove and strikes Max hard in the chest. The pain from this punch is indescribable. Max feels jolts of electricity course through him as he's hurled backwards from the punch, he lets go of Bonnie's hand and flies back into one of the trees Gallade knocked back. He coughs up a bit of blood and feels his glasses break on his face. Unable to see properly, he slowly gets to his feet. He's in so much pain that he can barely move. The Jade Orb slamming into his back severely winded him. He sees a shape run up to him and gets ready to defend himself, but then Bonnie's voice calls out to him. "Max? "MAX!?" Max are you alright?!" Max can only nod, his mouth too full of stuff to answer. But whether or not it's saliva, blood, or vomit, he cannot tell. Bonnie wraps his arms around her shoulders and proceeds to carry him with her as she runs.

Max swallows whatever bile is in his throat, then croaks out, "Bonnie... what about... Team Terra?" "I managed to find a way to fend them off," she replies. "My Aura is going to come out any second. I can barely keep it in! So, I'm letting it out in small blasts, which still knocks them back but doesn't knock me out!" Max smiles at his friend, then allows himself to be carried. Eventually, he can feel his Gallade's arms pick him up and carry him bridal style. "Good job Gallade!" Bonnie shouts. "Now let's run!" Then, Bonnie leads Gallade on to Lumiose City, with Team Terra close behind. Any time they get too close, Bonnie unleashed her Aura a small bit, causing a small blast to knock them back. Max can barely see, but he can feel the pulse wash over him. If this keeps up, they may have a chance of escaping this after all.

Bonnie is incredibly worried. Max keeps crying out in pain whenever he's jostled by Gallade. He's cut up badly, and his face is bleeding from the shards of his glasses that cut his face. His shirt is also covered in blood, leading Bonnie to believe that somethings in his bag have cut into his back. She needs to get him to a doctor as fast as possible. But still, she can feel herself beginning to tire as they keep going. Having to run as fast as she can while letting of the small Aura pulses are really starting to wear her out. But she ignores her fatigue and presses on, determined to get Max some help. However, she and Max's Gallade are soon stopped in their tracks by the 5 Admins. All of their fists are crackling with electricity.

"What did you do to him?!" Bonnie shouts. She dearly wishes Max could see, so he can find a way out for them. Momiji chuckles and looks at her crackling hand. "Special equipment designed by one of our Sub-Admins and chief scientist, X. they're designed to be able to harness some pokémon abilities. Essentially, Homura just hit your boyfriend with a Thunder Punch!" Bonnie gasps, desperately trying to find a way out. "But that's not all they can do," Momiji went on. "Watch this." Then, she pushed a few more buttons on her gloves. The electricity in her gloves disappeared, and fire replaced them. She lunges at Bonnie, but Bonnie sends her back with a bigger pulse than the previous ones. She can really feel herself beginning to tire, but still she forces herself to stay awake. "What's going on?" Max asks. "The lights around their gloves clanged. What happened?" "She just turned her fist to a Fire Punch" Bonnie replies. Max swears at this, then he whispers something to Gallade. Gallade nods, then puts Max down next to Bonnie. Then, he leaps into the air and cuts a few more trees down.

The trees fall on several Team Terra members, but the Admins manage to destroy them with their fists. However, it gives Bonnie the chance to start running, guiding Max with her. Gallade lands next to her and takes Max, then they start running as fast as they can. Their chase resumes, with Team Terra more fierce then ever. As they run, Max croaks out a few sentences to Gallade. "Gallade, put me down and cut trees!" "NO!" Bonnie shouts. "Do not do that! Max you can't walk!" "I can go for a bit," Max replies weakly. "Gallade, do as I say!" Gallade nods and hands Max over to Bonnie, then takes off to slow Team Terra down once more. Max slowly jogs after Bonnie, clutching his side as he does. "Keep and eye on Gallade for me," Max tells her. "And guide me for a bit please?" Bonnie nods, then takes Max's hand and guides him forward.

Team Terra have obviously grown tired of this trick, so Admin Angie leaps into the air and activates her fire punch. "Max, one of them is using Fire Punch!" Max grins at this, then pulls out Gallade's pokéball. "Gallade return!" he shouts. As Gallade returns, Angie's fist makes contact with a tree, setting it on fire in a big explosion. As the smoke billows from the trees, Bonnie realises what Max is up to. "A smoke signal!" she exclaims. "Yep," Max replies. "Someone's bound to see that, so all we have to do is stall." Bonnie nods, then leads Max on. All around them, Team Terra goons converge, desperately trying to hit them. Bonnie lets off more and more pulses, slowly easing the building pressure. But just as they're beginning to feel a spark of hope, Momiji lands in front of them. Before either of them can react, she lunges forward. Bonnie has just enough time to push Max out of the way before she catches her fist. Momiji is surprised by this. "I've grown up surrounded by electric type pokémon," Bonnie explains. "I'm used to electricity." Momiji chuckles at that. "But are you immune to fire?" At that moment, she jumps out of the way and Tabitha runs up behind her, punching her in the back with Fire Punch.

Max is forced to watch as Bonnie is thrown away from him. He can make out her shape fly away from him, before crashing down and bouncing across the ground. Max tries to run over to her, but feels someone kick him across his back and send him sprawling over to Bonnie. He feels the wind be knocked out of him and hits the ground hard. But still, he tries to crawl over to Bonnie. But he feels someone kick him over onto his back. Feeling around his face, he adjusts his glasses so that he can see out of his left eye. He sees Tabitha looming above him. "I must say, I'm impressed," he says. "You managed to evade our pursuit for 6 months, which is not something many can boast about. But in the end, it doesn't even matter." He picks Max up and pulls his backpack off. Max cries out from the pain this inflicts. Tabitha opens the bag and pulls the Jade Orb out, then throws the bag back to him. "As a reward, I'll let you keep the bag." Then, he pulls out a radio and speaks into it. "We've got it at last, come pick us up!" he says. The sound of a helicopter can be heard in the distance. "I'll see you around Maple," says Tabitha. "In the new world."

He walks off, and Sub-Admin F walks up to them. He picks him and an unconscious Bonnie up and stares at them both. "You're lucky our boss has taken a liking to you," he says. "Or I'd snap your necks for being such a colossal pain in ours!" "F, leave them!" Kasei shouts. F rolls his eyes and drops them. At this point, Max can feel himself slipping in and out of consciousness. "You fought well," Kasei says to him. "I only hope for your sake that history paints you as naïve fools, rather than the villains. The Boss has allowed you to see our new world after all, despite how much you interfered." Then, she and the others climb into the helicopter and take off. Max wants to call out to Bonnie, but before he can, he sees the world go black.

Well, now you see what Ash and the others saw two chapters ago. I hope that layout worked out, because that's how I'll be marking the halfway points of all of the fics in this series. Now, as I said in the opening notes, I'm going to take a week break from writing fanfiction. It'll be weird, but I need it to get the second half of this story straight. I'll see you all on Tuesday the 16th.