This is it, Anistar. Let me warn you all now, that I have only the most basic scrap of an idea as to what the hell is going to happen in this chapter. I am totally stuck for ideas here, so these chapters are going to be short as fuck, and in a case or two, total nonsense without rhyme or reason for being in this fic. I really, really wish I made the 1st half of this fic shorter, but I can't go back now unfortunately. So, all I can do is get through this shite part of the story, and hope that you enjoy this nonetheless.
Chapter 62:
Rock and Roll
About two days later, Max and Bonnie are finally arriving at Anistar. At least, according to Max's navigation device, which says that they'll be arriving in Anistar by the end of the day. Bonnie is eager to get there and challenge the gym immediately. Max can tell that Trixie's taunts and the fact that she has 7 of the 8 badges while Bonnie only has 6 is driving her mad. She clearly ants to beat Olympia as quickly as possible, then get to Snowbelle as fast as possible in order to beat that Gym, hopefully before Trixie does. Max understands that having a rival can be a great driving force, but he thinks that she's taking this one a bit far. It's almost like she becomes a different person whenever Trixie is around, and Max can't figure out why.
As they approach the city, Max feels the urge to write or record more pokémon, but he restrains himself because he knows that Bonnie wants to get to the city as quickly as she can so she can catch up to Trixie. But along the way, Max suddenly spots something out of the corner of his eye that gives him pause. Either he's going crazy, or he just spotted a Mega Steelix slithering along the forest to his right. He stopes and stares at the giant rock snake. Upon closer inspection, Max cans see what appears to be a young man standing on top of it as it's riding. Max smiles at this, suddenly excited. He can think of only one person crazy enough to do something like that. Or at least, one person who owned a Mega Steelix that was crazy enough to do something like that. He calls Bonnie over to him and points out the Steelix when she arrives. "I know you're in a hurry to get to Anistar, but I think I just saw someone I know," he tells her. "He has a Steelix just like that, and I've seen him ride it a few times."
Bonnie looks confused, and a bit annoyed. "What would someone you know be doing in Kalos?" she asks. "Anyway, it looks like they may be heading in that direction anyway, so you may see him there. What makes you so sure that it's someone you know?" Max just shrugs. "I'm not," he admits, "I just have a feeling, you know. Come on, it'll be quick, then we'll head right back to Anistar, I promise. Please can we just check?" Bonnie looks into Max's pleading eyes, then sighs. "Fine," she says. "But if he's not going towards Anistar, then we aren't going to be tagging along with him, understood?" Max nods, then pulls out Gallade. "Teleport us to that Steelix!" he informs him. Gallade nods then does just that, sending them flying over to the Steelix in and instant.
The man riding the Steelix spots the Gallade teleporting the two children and small orange mouse into his path and stops the Steelix. He looks down at them and looks like he's about to shout at them for doing something so stupid, but then his eyes land on Max, and he breaks into a grin. "Max!" he shouts. "Fancy seeing you here again! I'd forgotten you chose to journey through Kalos instead of Hoenn!" The rider slides down Steelix's back, returns it to its original form, then returns it to its ball before making his way over. He's a tall and muscular man of about 19 with tanned skin and spikey brown hair. Max seems stunned by what he's wearing, Bonnie notes, which is a more formal attire. "Hey Brock!" max replies. "What are you doing here?" Brock seems to blush at this. "Oh, I was just picking a present up for someone special, who's waiting for me in Anistar!" he replies. Bonnie can see Max mouth the words "Oh for Arceus's sake!" and roll his eyes. Then, he says, "Mind if we tag along? We're heading to Anistar too." Brock agrees happily, then the three of them set off together.
As they travel, Max catches Brock up on everything that happened since he saw him in Hoenn. As it turns out, Brock, like the rest of Max's friends, has heard about what happened with Team Terra and the Jade Orb a few months ago. When asked how he knew, Brock explains that May had told him after she returned from Kalos. Brock also questions Max and Bonnie's relationship to each other, which only serves to embarrass them and make the. Vehemently deny any and all romantic affection between each other. Brock nods knowingly but doesn't say anything. Max does not like that look, but he doesn't say anything about it. As they walk, Bonnie has Max hang back a bit so she can ask him what he meant by "Oh for Arceus's sake". Max chuckles a bit at this. "I didn't realise you could read lips" he says. Bonnie shrugs. "I can't normally," she admits. "But I seem to be able to read yours." They both go quite red at that and look away from each other, before Max continues with his explanation. "Brock is an outrageous flirt," Max explains, trying to ignore his warming face. "He was probably coerced into doing or getting something for an attractive girl in the hopes of wooing her." Bonnie chuckles at that. "I kinda wish Clemont was like that" she comments. "No you do not," Max replies. "You have no idea how many times Misty or I had to drag him away by the ear for flirting with someone obviously uncomfortable with him." Bonnie laughs at this. "Yeah, that does sound annoying" she agrees.
They arrive in Anistar at last and Brock immediately heads off to the nearest Pokémon Centre, claiming he needs to heal Steelix up, as well as one or two others on his team. Of course, Max is immediately suspicious, so he and Bonnie follow. "Brock flirts with literally every single Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny that he comes across," Max explains. "So, I'm going there to make sure that doesn't happen." Bonnie laughs again, then follows him. They arrive at the Pokémon Centre, and Brock leaves his pokémon there to be treated. As he waits for his pokémon, he spots a woman struggling with her pokémon. She's trying to get it to take some form of medicine, but it's adamantly refusing. Brock sees this and approaches, offering her a better way of trying to give the pokémon, a Lotad, to take the medicine. It works, and the Lotad looks so much better immediately. The woman looks so grateful that she seems to want to kiss Brock. And for once, Max decides that Brock has earned this, and she clearly wants to do it, so he doesn't try to drag him away. However, to his utter amazement, Brock turns her down, saying that he needs to go and pick up his pokémon. Max stares at him in amazement as he collects his pokémon, then leave the Centre.
"What the hell Brock?!" Max asks as they walk. "That woman was clearly into you, how did you miss that?!" Brock suddenly looks mystified. "Because like I said, I've already found the perfect girl for me. In fact, we've already been dating for nearly 3 years!" Max's jaw drops at this. "You, dating?" he says. Brock looks at him. "Is that really so hard to believe?" he asks. Max shakes his head. "No, I didn't mean it like that!" he exclaims. "I was just surprised, because you looked so jealous of Ash and Serena." At this, Brock looks confused. "Did I?" he asks. "I was just admiring how great they looked as a couple. Although I guess to you, who is used to punishing me for flirting with every girl I see, I probably looked jealous." Max snorts at this. "Ok fair," he says. "Ans sorry about that. But what about that girl Misty had to drag you away from?" At this, Brock goes red. "Ah, that one," he says. "What can I say, old habits die hard. In fact, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention that to her when you meet her. I've pretty much broken the habit, that was just one small relapse." Max promises, so Brock leads him and Bonnie over to a bench in the centre of Anistar.
Sitting on the bench accompanied by a big grey wolf is a young black woman, with short brown hair and a friendly face. She looks to be about 2 or 3 years older than Brock, but looks very pleased to see him approach. "Oh, there you are!" she announces as he approaches. "I was wondering where you'd run off to. I was starting to worry your old habit had started again." Brock doesn't quite meet the woman's eyes at this, probably because of what Max had reminded him of. "Nope," he says. "I went out to get you something nice for our anniversary." The woman's eyes widen. "Oh, Brock you remembered!" she exclaims. "Of course I did!" brock replies, before showing her what he had been hiding in his bag. It was a large bouquet of some of the most beautiful flowers Max has ever seen. The woman looks so pleased with these. "They're my favourite flowers!" she exclaims, taking them from him and smelling them. "I didn't know there was a florist in Anistar." "There isn't," Brock replies sheepishly. "I had to go out and pick them myself, which is why I was gone all day." The woman's eyes widen even more, if that was at all possible, and she kisses Brock deeply. "Oh you shouldn't have!" she exclaims. "Thank you so much!"
That's when she locks eyes with Max and Bonnie. "Oh, why hello," she says. "Pardon my rudeness, my name is Olivia. I'm an Island Kahuna from Alola, and Brock's girlfriend. Who might you be?" Max and Bonnie introduce themselves, then, "because of course she does" Max thinks, Bonnie immediately asks them how they started dating. Brock explains exactly how they met, while he was in Alola on a trip with Misty to visit Ash and his friends from Alola, and they started dating a year later when Brock returned to Alola and formally asked her out. Out of all of Ash's friends, they've been dating for the longest amount of time. With that settled, Brock refocuses on what he was previously talking about. Namely, his and Olivia's anniversary. Brock goes into detail about his plans for them. There's apparently a very nice restaurant that he has booked for them in a different town not far from Anistar, and they can use Steelix to get there. Olivia is delighted by this, and reveals to Brock her gift to him.
She leads them down a street in Anistar that's full of banners and tables. It looks like they're setting something up, like the Coumarine Festival. Bonnie's eyes widen at this. "It's the Anistar Cooking Competition (Told you I was running out of ideas)!" she exclaims. "We didn't get a chance to watch this when we came here last, so it'll be cool to see what happens." Olivia laughs at this. "I figured since you love cooking so much, you might like to enter it together, so I took the liberty of entering us in." Brock looks even more delighted than Olivia did with her gift. "This is amazing!" he exclaims. "Thank you so much!" Max just stands there, waiting for an explanation. Eventually, Bonnie notices his confusion and gives him one. "Every year, Anistar hosts a huge cooking competition to celebrate Kalosian culture and cuisine," she explains. "It's a huge event where people from all over the world come to enter. In this event, spectators are the ones who try the food and vote for the best one, rather than there being a panel of judges."
Max looks suddenly very keen to give this a look, so he asks Bonnie if they can stay to watch. Bonnie torn, because she wants to catch up to Trixie, but also wants to actually take part in this competition. Eventually, Max manages to win her over, so she agrees that they stay to watch the competition. Max is ecstatic and immediately runs off to book them a room in the Pokémon Centre, since no doubt the hotels would all be booked out. Brock and Olivia also part with them, because they need to get ready for their reservation. But before they separate, Brock takes Max aside and shows him a large gold ring with a small jewel at its centre. Max gasps as he realises it's an engagement ring. "Go for it!" he says quietly. "She's clearly head over heels for you, she'll obviously say yes!" Brock looks nervous. "Don't you think that we may be a bit too young?" he asks. "I mean, I'm only 19 and she's 21." Max thinks about this carefully before answering. "Well, given how long it takes to plan a wedding, I'd say you're a good enough age," Max tells him. "I'd say you'll probably be 20 by the time you actually get around to it. Plus, you've been dating for 3 years by now, I'd say that's plenty of time." Brock smiles at this and rubs Max's head. "Thanks bud," he says. "Well, wish me luck." Then, he stands up and leads Olivia away, while Max and Bonnie head back to the Centre, with Max excitedly telling Bonnie what Brock had told him.
As I warned, I am completely out of ideas. That whole cooking competition was literally the best I could come up with, after wandering around a hotel room for nearly an hour trying to think of something. I am not making that up! I almost didn't even update this today because I really didn't want to have to deal with such an unplanned chapter, but I need to get through this as fast as possible so I can get beck to the planned parts. Also, I know that Brock's flirting being a bad habit he can't shake is a terrible explanation for some of the stuff he did in chapter 1, but I had forgotten about his interactions with Olivia until I watched the recap of Alola and realised I made a mistake. So, I hope that fixed it at least somewhat. Anyway, with that, I shall see you all on Friday with the Gym Battle.