Before we get onto today's chapter, I wish to discuss something serious. I'm sure a lot of you saw what was happening in Dublin two nights ago on the news. As a Dubliner myself, I feel the need to say that the vast majority of us aren't like that in anyway. They were a handful of racist, right-wing extremists who used the stabbing of a woman and three kids as an excuse to riot and loot. I also want to tell all of my Irish readers, especially those of foreign ethnicity to please stay safe! Anyway, onto something more light-hearted, this chapter will be the last one before Coumarine. Sorry for the long gap of nonsense, but I didn't want the second half of this fic to be longer than the first. Anyway, I'll stop talking now and let you read this chapter.
CHAPTER 34:
Homing Pidgy
As the two continue on their way to Coumarine, Max tries to find his next pokémon for his team. Unfortunately, none of them seem to catch his eye. He stops at the slightest movement, ready to spot a pokémon. Sometimes it turns out to be a false alarm, but sometimes he really does spot a pokémon hiding in the foliage. But whenever he sees one, he doesn't catch it right away. Instead, he chooses to analyse it first, to see if it would be a good fit for his team. When he does this, half the time he finds that it isn't, and half the time the pokémon runs off before he can fully decide, something that never fails to amuse Bonnie.
Now, they are roughly 3 days away from Coumarine, and Max still hasn't caught his 5th pokémon yet. At this point, he's considering just catching the 1st one he sees. Bonnie can tell he's growing a bit frustrated, and tries her best to keep him calm, which seems to work. They're sitting by their campfire, having just finished eating dinner. Max is glad they're almost at Coumarine, because they're running low on food. They sit and chat for a bit, before Max grows bored of talking and decides to work on his book for a bit.
He goes to the edge of the light from their fire and sits with his book on his lap, and a packet of crisps by his side. As he scans the darkness for signs of any nocturnal pokémon, he eats away at the packet. Eventually, the rustling of the packet catches the attention of something. Movement catches Max's eye, and he sees a Pidgy coming towards him cautiously, eyeing the packet as it does. Max eagerly reaches behind him to grab a pokéball, but the Pidgy scarpers before he can.
Disappointed, he goes back to writing until his eyelids droop. That's when he decides to pack it in and head to bed. But before he does, he decides to empty the crumbs of his snack onto the ground, in case that Pidgy came back. He isn't going to try and catch it, but he wants to use the action as an apology for sacring it. Once the packet's empty, he pockets it and enters his tent. Once he and Bonnie are asleep, the Pidgy returns. She approaches the pile of crumbs cautiously, before eating it. Once she's finished, she decides to follow these humans, to see if they have any more snacks on them.
The next day, as Max and Bonnie head out, Bonnie suddenly feels like they're being followed. She looks around nervously, pulling one of her pokéballs out as she does. "What's wrong?" Max asks her. "I think something's following us," Bonnie replies. "Be careful." Max nods and pulls out one of his own pokéballs, just in case. "Is it Team Terra?" he asks. Bonnie closes her eyes. "I don't think so," she says. "The Aura doesn't feel threatening, but I can't make it out." Max nods and decides to air on the side of caution, leaving his pokéball in his hand.
Eventually, they decide that it's safe to lower their guard, and sit down for lunch. Because of their decreasing food quantity, they've been skipping lunch this past week. Now however, since they're so close to their destination, they decide to treat themselves to one. As they eat, Max hears the sound of the trees rustling. He looks around and spies another Pidgy staring at them. It takes him a few seconds to realise that it's the same one. He smiles in amusement, then nudges Bonnie, who's been feeding bits of her sandwich to Dedenne.
"I think I found out who's been tailing us" he tells her. "Who?" she asks, looking around. Max subtly points up to the tree where Pidgy is hiding, then explains what happened last night. Bonnie laughs, then resumes eating. Once they're finished, they set off again, but not before Max leaves behind a few more crumbs of his food for the Pidgy. Once they're gone, Pidgy flies out of the tree and devours the scraps Max left behind. Once again, as soon as she's finished, she takes off again after the two, hoping for more.
The two of them continue on their way to Coumarine. Bonnie senses something again and chuckles. "Looks like your little friend has followed us once more," she says. Max smiles and pulls out his final snack food. It's a piece of chocolate. Max remembers the Taillow that stole chocolate from the group back when he and May travelled with Ash 4 years ago. So, he decides to leave a small trail for the bird. Maybe with this little trick, he can convince the Pidgy to allow him to catch it.
But before he can begin leaving a trail, Bonnie cries out, "Max look out!" Max leaps to the side just as a net trap comes flying out from the forest. The pair manages to avoid getting caught, much to the annoyance of Sarah and Sam, who come walking out of the forest. "I don't know how you do that girl," says Sarah with annoyance. "But it makes it very hard to sneak up on you!" Bonnie grins at her. "I know," she says. "That's why I do it." Sam growls at this. "Well, it matters not," he declares. "Because we will still get the Jade Orb from you!"
With that, the two advance. Max and Bonnie decide that it's best to just run for it, since they're very close to Coumarine, meaning there's bound to be people there that they can take refuge amongst. But as they start running, Max trips on a tripwire which triggers a small explosion, sending him flying forward. He hits the ground hard, his back suddenly hurting from the explosion. He feels his teeth crunch on a bit of skin inside his cheek and he tastes blood. Bonnie freaks out and rounds on Team Terra, who look completely panicked.
"What the-!" Sarah shouted. "I told you to use stun spore!" Sam looked panicked. "I did!" he replied. "But it wasn't spreading right when I tested it, so I added a bit of gunpowder to make it blast out a bit more." Sarah pinches the bridge of her nose. "Gunpowder makes stun spore explode you utter numbskull!" she shouts. "Now look what you've done!" She sighs, then heads towards him. "Let's just get the Orb and be on our way" she says. Bonnie stands in between them and Max, who gets slowly to his feet, his back in pain from the burning.
"Look kid, that was an accident," says Sarah. "We just wanted to knock you out, not burn you. But you'd have to be very stupid to try to fight us now." "Haven't you forgotten what I can do?" Bonnie asks, raising her hand, threatening to cause another big burst. But Sarah and Sam just push Bonnie out of the way and advance on Max. However, before they can get to him, something flew out of the trees and started clawing at Sarah's hair. After a few seconds of staring, Max realises it's the Pidgy from before.
Sarah is swinging her hands around her hair, trying to scare away the Pidgy. Sam runs forward and tries to hit it with a stone, but all he does is hit Sarah in the head with it. Sarah stops struggling, rounds on Sam, and begins running after him, screaming at him for doing that while he apologises. Bonnie runs over to Max, pulling out a burn heal and rubbing it on the burn, trying desperately to ignore how warm her face is growing. Then, she wraps Max's arm around her shoulder and walking towards Coumarine. "Are you ok?" she asks him as they walk. "Yeah," he grunts. "My side is sore, but I'm fine. Thanks to that Pidgy." At that moment, Pidgy comes flying over to them and lands on Max's shoulder. "Speak of the Giratina," he laughs. "Are you here to join my team?" he asks. Pidgy nods, so Max catches her. Now with Pidgy on his team, the pair continue on their way.
Once Sarah finishes smacking Sam with a rock, the pair make plans on how next to steal the Orb from Max. But before they can, Sam is contacted. "Hello?" he says. "We need you two to return to base immediately!" came the irritated voice of C. "We have a new plan to steal the Orb. And this one will, not, fail."
And with that, I have managed to bring the average back to 2,000 words per chapter. Sorry for how short the past two chapters have been, but that's why. There was going to be more to the final paragraph, but it went over the limit, so I had to cut it down. But now, we're finally done with the bullshit travelling segment. Next chapter, they'll finally be in Coumarine, and even see a few familiar faces. You'll see who I mean next chapter, which'll be out on Saturday. See you then.