I will be honest here, I've got basically no plans for this chapter. I want to bring in another couple I ship from the main anime, since I've got a lot more characters to bring in and not enough chapters to do it any better. But other than that, I've got nothing, so I'll be making this up as I go. If I manage to get this out on Friday as scheduled I'll be genuinely amazed. Anyway, enjoy.
Not much happens to the pair over the next few weeks of travel. Max gets a chance to observe Floette's attachment to her flower, as well as training her up a bit. Bonnie also trains up her pokémon a bit. She remembers Ash having a bit of trouble with these final 3 gyms, especially the last one, so she wants to be prepared. There are many times where she considers catching some of the pokémon they see on their travels, but either decides against it or fails to catch it on the occasion she does try. Now, they're sitting by a lake, taking a break from all of the travelling they've been doing. They considered getting into their swimsuits, but their recently discovered feelings make the thought of doing that exceedingly awkward, so they settle with just staring out at the lake, or in Max's case, all of the pokémon who live in it.
As he stares at the water, he decides to actually write in his book for once instead of using the logs, since they're taking a break by this lake. As he sits there, staring out at the water, he suddenly spots a dark shadow appear just below the water's surface. Most normal people would probably back away from the water upon seeing an ominous shadow in the water, however Max Maple isn't "most people". When he sees the shadow, he eagerly leans forward on the bank, trying to get a closer look at this pokémon. The shadow reaches the surface of the water and breaks through knocking Max backwards as it does. He hits the ground and notices a large wave of water approaching him. Quick as he can, he curls himself into a ball, protecting his notebook from any water damage, but completely drenching himself in the process.
Bonnie hears the sound of splashing and Max crying out and runs to investigate. When she gets there, she sees Max lying in a ball on the ground, completely soaked through, and standing over him is a large blue water serpent. Checking her pokédex, Bonnie finds out it's a Gyarados. She sees somebody climbing off of the Gyarados, a tall boy maybe a year or so older than Ash. He has spiky black hair held up by a red headband. He has black eyes and the beginnings of facial hair above his upper lip. He's wearing a black wetsuit with green patches on his sides, and he carries an oxygen tank on his back, attached to a diver's mask that covers his face. He lands on his feet and removes the mask, before helping Max onto his feet. "Sorry about that Max," says the boy. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be there when I surfaced." Bonnie looks at Max, seeing just how wet he is, and bursts out laughing. Max scowls and shivers slightly as he scans through his notebook, making sure it's still dry. Once he's sure it is, he finally realises something the boy had said.
"How do you know my name?" he asks the boy. Tracey laughs at this as he pulls a bag off of the spot he was sitting on the Gyarados, which both Max and Bonnie notice is waterproof. He pulls out a towel and starts drying his hair. "Of course, we haven't met before," he says, before holding his hand out for Max to shake. "The name's Tracey Sketchit. I'm Misty's boyfriend." Max realises that Misty has mentioned dating someone a few times, but he wasn't expecting someone like this guy. Max shakes his hand, while Bonnie gets starry-eyed, as she usually does when she hears about romance. While Max borrows Tracey's towel to dry himself off and gets a change of clothes from his bag, Bonnie starts grilling Tracey on how he and Misty started dating. "She's obsessed with relationships," Max explains. "She considers herself to be a matchmaker extraordinaire." Tracey laughs at this, before explaining. He and Misty were good friends, and he'd frequently visit her in her gym time talk with her. Eventually, they began to develop feelings for each other, which Misty's sisters noticed. Eventually, they convinced him to take her out on a date. "There's really not much to it" Tracey finished.
But Bonnie has stopped paying attention. She's staring at Max, who stands a little ways away from them, swapping his soaking wet t-shirt for a fresh dry one. She's blushing slightly at the sight of her crush without a shirt. She looks away quickly before Max could notice. Tracey does notice this however, but he decides not to say anything. Once Max is in some dry clothes, Tracey divulges the pair on why he was riding the Gyarados in the 1st place. "He's not mine, he's Misty's," he explains. "She allowed me to borrow him in order to quickly get to perfect places to find pokémon to sketch. However, that's just an excuse I've been using. In actual fact, I'm looking for something for her. You see, it's her birthday in a few days, so I've been looking for a special water type pokémon that's native only to Kalos. But I haven't had much luck with that yet." At this, Bonnie perks up and elbows Max in the arm. "Funny you should say thar," she tells him. "Because over here is a boy with just the information you're looking for."
Max blushes at this, but he pulls out his notebook and flips through it, until he comes across the one he's looking for. He shows Tracey the book, to which he stares in amazement. "How long were you studying this pokémon?" he asks. "Those are just passing notes I made on it" he replies, blushing with a shrug. Max is expecting his eyes to widen and his jaw to drop, however to his surprise, Tracey grins. "Glad to see it's not just me," he comments. "I can do something like this as well, but with drawing. It's not nearly as impressively detailed as this, but it's still pretty close. Take a look." Then, from his waterproof bag, he pulls out his own notebook. True to his word, he has his own drawings of pokémon in it, incredibly detailed, just as he had said. "Wow, these are good!" Max exclaims. Tracey grins at this. "Thanks," he says. "Now, show me to the pokémon you suggested."
Max leads Tracey to the spot he saw the pokémon. The pokémon in question is a Clawitzer, something that definitely peaked Tracey's interest. Max and Bonnie had found a group of them in a river not far from the lake they were sitting at. Tracey stares with happiness at the sight of the pokémon he was looking for. He quickly runs in and starts trying to catch one. While he does, Max and Bonnie watch him. Max records more information on Clawitzer using an audio log, since there isn't a spot for him to actually write this down. Tracey spends a good 20 minutes at least trying to catch one, but at last he does. He grins with delight at this, before running over to Max and hugs him tightly. "Thank you so much!" he says. "I couldn't have done this without you!" Max blushes again and says that it's nothing. Once their done there, Tracey reattaches the mask to his face, releases Gyarados and sets off back to where he came from, with Max and Bonnie resuming what they were doing by the lake.
A few days later, Max and Bonnie are continuing walking along the river that comes from the lake they were at. In just a few minutes, they'll be leaving it, and heading upwards to Laverre. But just as they're about to turn away from the river, the sound of a rushing wave can be heard from the river. They turn around and see Misty's Gyarados riding up the river towards them. However, this time Misty and Tracey are on it. Max notices the wave in time and manages to get out of the way, but Bonnie isn't so lucky. As Gyarados comes to a stop, Bonnie gets absolutely drenched, much to Max's amusement. Misty hops down from Gyarados and walks over to Max. "It's only been like 7 months since I've seen you, and yet here you are in the same kind of trouble that Ash used to get into," she comments. "When I heard about what happened to you with Team Terra, I was so worried. But I'm glad to see that you're ok!"
Then, her eyes wander to a dripping wet Bonnie. "Oh," she says, and a glint appears in her eyes. Max immediately knows where her mind is going and moves quickly to derail that thought before she embarrasses them both. "Misty, this is my FRIEND, Bonnie," he emphasises the word friend to avoid any misunderstandings. "She's Clemont's little sister." Misty's glint disappears. "Oh, I knew she looked familiar. Your brother is the Lumiose Gym Leader right?" Bonnie nods, wringing her hair out. Misty notices how wet Bonnie is and chuckles with embarrassment. "Sorry about that," she says, rubbing the back of her head. "Here, let me get you some dry clothes." Bonnie shakes her head, blushing slightly. "Don't bother," she says. "I've got an idea." Then, she takes Pidgeotto's pokéball from Max's belt, and has her use her wings to dry her off.
Once she is, Misty brings the conversation back on topic. "We came here because I wanted to thank you for helping Tracey with finding that Clawitzer," she tells them. "It's an amazing gift, so thank you." Max blushes slightly and rubs the back of his head. "Aw, it was nothing" he says, to which Bonnie nods her head in agreement. By this time, Tracey has gotten off Gyarados and is standing next to Misty with an arm around her waist. "Happy Birthday, by the way!" Bonnie adds. Misty smiles and thanks her. "So, what are you up to today?" Max asks. Misty blushes a bit at this. "Tracey says he has a surprise for me," Misty explains. "So we're heading off to Snowbell, where he's got a surprise waiting for me." Tracey grins at this. "What about you two?" he asks. Bonnie explains their plan to head to Laverre for her next Gym Battle. "We were just there," Misty tells them. "It's a beautiful city. I wish you luck." Bonnie thanks her. Once their conversation is finished, Misty and Tracey hop back onto Gyarados. "Good luck!" they both call, before riding down the river once more. Max and Bonnie wave them off, then resume their journey.
Jesus Christ, I'm so sorry that this took me so long to get this out. I was completely strapped for ideas, and then I got sick, which made it even harder to write something. I'm mostly better now, so I was finally able to finish this. But I'm very sorry for the abrupt ending, but I've completely run out of ideas for this chapter. I also had to update this on my phone at a few points, so please excuse any bad spelling or grammar. Anyway, I'll see you all on Wednesday with the next one, which I actually do have a plan for.