Before we get into this chapter, there's something I need to address. I'm going to be bringing Goh and Chloe into this chapter but, as I keep saying, I've never watched Journeys. So, I have absolutely no idea if Max has ever met Goh. I know that Bonnie did, but that's only because I saw a clip of Goh and Ash running into her and Clemont while I was trying to find a clip of Ash and Serena seeing each other again. But I have no idea if Chloe ever met Bonnie, but I'm almost certain that she didn't meet Max. So, what's going to happen here is that I'm going to write it so that Max hasn't met Goh and Chloe before, and that Bonnie has never met Chloe. If this is completely incorrect, please tell me! I will be able to rewrite the scene so it's canonically correct, but I cannot do that if I don't get comments telling me if I got something wrong. I desperately need those. Anyway, this chapter will also be a bunch of rambling because I didn't have a lot of time to work on it during the week, because I had a bunch of Essays to write. But anyway, I'll shut up now and let you read this.
CHAPTER 36:
Goh Goat Conundrum
Leaving Dawn and Zoey behind, Max, Bonnie, Barry, and Lukas head off to the monorail in order to get to the Gym. Barry leads the way, with Lukas walking beside him. At first, Max walks beside Lukas to show him what he's worked on since they parted ways. But after he's done, he and Bonnie step back a few steps to allow Barry and Lukas time to talk alone. Bonnie is tempted to just straight up ask one to take care of the other, but she knows with absolute certainty that it will not work, and she'd be cringing at the memory of that for years to come. So, she settles for standing back and just observing.
Unfortunately, they arrive at the monorail with no progress made between the two boys. Barry is far too much of a gay mess to say anything, and Lukas is far too oblivious to notice. So, with Bonnie's schemes being put on hold for now, they get on the monorail and head for the gym. Along the way, Max is completely mesmerised by the train. Bonnie finds the sight to be quite funny. "What's up Max?" she asks. "Have you never been on a monorail before?" max shakes his head. "I was on this one train that was kinda similar to this," he says. "But it wasn't this fast in any way. And the sight certainly wasn't this amazing!" Then, he goes back to staring in wonder at Coumarine, and all of the pokémon passing the train.
Finally, the train ride ends, and Barry resumes his directing to the gym, which turns out to be a massive tree on a hill just outside of the city. The fields around the tree are also grandly decorated, no doubt the location of the festival itself. Barry starts excitedly running towards the gym, with Lukas calling to him to slow down. Max and Bonnie laugh at Barry's impatience and run after the pair. They reach the base of the tree to find that Barry and Lukas have stopped in front of it. Max is about to ask why they have, when he sees a sign on the entrance. "Gym temporarily closed" it read. "Why is it closed?" Max asks. "Is it for the festival?" Bonnie shakes her head, but before she can say anything else, a voice calls out behind them, "Nope, it's closed because my boyfriend is an idiot!"
Everyone spins around to see who's talking. It's a girl, roughly the same age as Barry and Lukas. She has long magenta hair tied in a long plat at the back, and big green eyes. She's to be wearing a pink dress with a white coat over it. In her arms is an Eevee, which Bonnie immediately gets starry-eyed upon seeing it. "My name is Chloe," the girl explains, coming over to them. "My boyfriend and I were paying this place a visit since he wanted to check out some of the plants here. Unfortunately, his Cinderace got startled by a Gogoat and launched a fireball at it. He missed, destroying the fence and now all of the pokémon kept here got out. Ramos was furious with him, so now he and I have to help find them all. If you want to challenge the Gym, you're going to have to help too."
Max resists the urge to roll his eyes. "For Arceus's sake can something just be simple for once" he complains. Bonnie elbows him in the ribs and agrees to help Chloe and her boyfriend with locating the pokémon. Barry wants to stay and help too, but Lukas reminds him that Zoey has her first showcase performance tomorrow and wants their help along with Dawn to get ready. Barry groans a bit but agrees to head back with his friend. But as they're leaving, Chloe stops them. "Hold on," she says. "Did you say Dawn?" The two boys nod, causing Chloe to smile. "I know her! I won't keep you since it's clear that Zoey needs your help, but give them my regards would you!?" The two boys look at each other, shrug, then nod their heads, before heading back to the monorail.
Chloe leads Max and Bonnie over to where her boyfriend and Ramos are. As they walk, Max and Chloe share why they're in Kalos. Chloe decided she wanted to give the showcase a try, since she was very inspired by another friend of hers, Serena. Her boyfriend came with her to support her, and also to check out the new Mega Evolutions discovered recently. Once they learn that her boyfriend's name is Goh, Bonnie gasps. "I know him!" she exclaims. "I met him while he and Ash were travelling the world so Ash could become Monarch!" Chloe chuckles at this. "Small world," she comments. "Then I take it you know Serena as well?" Both Max and Bonnie nod. Bonnie's about to explain how, when they hear a voice call out, "Oi, Chloe! Come here! I need you're help with something!"
They all turn to see who's talking, and spot a tan-skinned, black -haired boy with a red streak in his hair and blue eyes. Standing next to him is an old man, who looks rather pissed off. But he brightens at the sight of Bonnie. "Ah, Bonnie. I was wondering when you'd come to challenge me," he says cheerily. "Unfortunately, you came at a bad time." He glowers at the boy next to him. "We know what happened Ramos," says Bonnie. "We're here to help you out." Ramos grins at this. "That's mighty kind of you," he says. "With your help, we'll get this done in no time." While they're talking, Chloe goes over to the boy. So, this is Goh, Max comments to himself. Goh points to a small hole in the ground and explains something. Chloe nods and sends her Eevee down it. A few seconds later, a Skidoo comes running out of it, with Eevee in hot pursuit.
They all try to catch the Skidoo, but it's too quick and manages to slip away. Max pulls out a notebook and skims through it for a few seconds, before finding the right page. He reads what he wrote about Skidoo, then runs over to one of the plants in the area. He pulls one of the plant's seeds off of it's stem, then leaves it lying in the path. Then, he orders Chloe to summon Eevee back. Once Eevee is back in her arms, Max pulls out Treecko and hides him in a branch of a tree. Sure enough, the Skidoo comes running wildly back, but he stops when he sees the seed. This gives Max enough time to order Treecko to use vine whip, trapping Skidoo in a net of vines.
Everyone stares in amazement at this. Ramos chuckles at this display and looks at Max. "I must say, you seem to be quite clever boy," he says. "How did you know that would work?" Max bashfully rubs the back of his head. "I noted that Skidoo seem to come to a stop when they see something that appeals to them, be it their favourite food or another Skidoo," he explains. "So, all I needed to do was lay its favourite food out, wait for it to stop, and then trap it. Nothing to it." Ramos chuckles again. "My, my," he says. "You seem to have quite the-" "Quite the analytical mind," Max finishes for him. "I've been told that a few times now."
Once Ramos returns Skidoo to its ball, he hands it to one of the gym trainers, before turning to Goh. "Now that we have one of the pokémon back," he says, "I'm going to need you to rebuild that fence you broke. While you do that, the rest of us will hunt down the others." Everyone nods and Goh heads off to the fence. Chloe goes with him to help, and Max and Bonnie follow Ramos around the fields, looking for the rest of the missing pokémon. As they separate, Ramos calls out to Goh's retreating back, "And make sure to keep that bloody Cinderace inside its ball!" Goh nods and shouts an apology, then disappears out of sight.
Ramos sighs at this, before turning to Max and Bonnie. "I'm not normally this angry," he explains. "But having to chase the gym's official pokémon around when you're my age can be quite irritating. Say, what's your name boy?" "Max, Max Maple" Max replies, extending his hand. Ramos shakes it politely, surprising Max with his strength. "So, are you going to be challenging the gym then?" Ramos asks him. Max shakes his head. "No," he replies. "I'm just here to cheer Bonnie on and give a bit of advice." Ramos chuckles once more. "Well, if your trick to catch that Skidoo has shown me anything, it's that I must be mindful in this upcoming battle." Bonnie nods at this. "But you won't have just Max's strategies to worry about!" she declares. "My team is still really strong!" "I don't doubt it," Ramos replies. "I'm already looking forward to this battle very much."
They continue to chat like this as they search for the rest of the pokémon. Some of them are pretty easy to catch, since all they have to do is sneak up behind them and either grab them or throw their pokéball at them, depending on the case. But others are more slippery and quick, meaning they'd need to be clever about catching them. Luckily, thanks to the notes Max made on the pokémon he and Bonnie encountered on their journey, he's able to come up with clever tricks to catch them all. Even Bonnie thinks up one or two on her own. Eventually, they manage to round up all of the wayward pokémon.
Grateful for all of their help, Ramos invites the pair to share a cup of tea with him before Bonnie challenges him. "That boy had better have that fence finished" he mutters to himself as they head back to the tree. Luckily, he and Chloe did manage to fix the fence, so there was no risk of the pokémon escaping again. Feeling bad for shouting at Goh, Ramos invites the two for tea as well. While sitting in a kitchen in the base of the tree, Max shares how he knew all those tricks. He shares his notebook around, as usual hearing about how impressive it is that he's able to gather this much information this quickly.
Chloe offers to take pictures of his notebook to show to her father, a professor in Kanto, but Max turns it down. "Thanks," he says, "but I'd rather show off my work myself, once it's completed." Chloe nods and puts her phone away. The conversation then moves on to Bonnie asking how Goh and Chloe got together. Goh blushes at this and Chloe laughs. "Oh, it's so cute!" she exclaims. "The two of us had been crushing on each other for a while, and we were very obvious about it. So obvious that even Ash commented about it." This causes Bonnie to laugh her head off. "But we were both too shy to admit it," Chloe goes on. "That is, until about 6 months ago, Goh spent an entire night with his Mantyke in the water, trying to get it to evolve. He got sick and I had to take care of him. During this time, he was a bit delirious, at one point thinking I was Ash. In fact, he told me about his crush on me while he thought I was Ash."
Max and Bonnie burst out laughing at this, and Goh hides his head in his hoodie, which is red with a white pokéball insignia. Chloe giggles along with them, before finishing her story. "When he got better, I told him about his confession, and confessed that I felt the same. We've been going out ever since." Goh removes his head from his hoodie at this. "Ash still won't let me live that down," he comments. "Every time he sees me, he feigns being sick and talks nonsense." Bonnie giggles at this. "Bit rich coming from him," she says. "He once stayed up all night training in a river and fell ill the next day. Serena had to take care of him, and for a second thought he was about to confess his love for her." Goh pauses at this, a smug grin on his face. "Really?" he asks. "I'll make a note of that."
At that moment, Ramos stands up. "Well, as nice of a chat as this is, we are beginning to waste daylight," he says, before turning to Bonnie. "So, how about we have our battle now?" Bonnie leaps up with excitement at this. "Absolutely!" she exclaims. Max stands up too, ready to follow them. "We'd love to come and watch," Chloe tells them, "But we need to head back in order for me to be ready for the showcase tomorrow." Goh is about to protest, obviously wanting to ask Bonnie more about Ash getting sick, but Chloe gives him a look, so he relents and follows her back to the monorail, wishing Bonnie luck as he does. The other three laugh at this, then Max and Bonnie follow Ramos up the tree.
Sorry if this felt like a filler chapter, but I wanted to introduce one more couple from the original series before I reach the halfway mark. And it was either add an extra, maybe useless, chapter to Coumarine, then an extra, definitely useless, chapter after Coumarine. But anyway, I will be writing showcases in a couple chapters, which will most likely be terrible. While I finally have some confidence in my ability to write fights, I have absolutely no idea how the showcases will go. But I'll give them a try, and if they are as terrible as I fear, then maybe I'll ask for help writing any future ones I may do. Anyway, with that said, I'll see you all next week for the gym battle.