Welcome to a chapter I've been planning for a while. It's one that actually moves the story along, something that hasn't happened in a while lol. But of course, there's always the chance that this won't come out until tomorrow, maybe even Saturday, as these next 2 days are going to be busy for me. But I'll try my best to get this out on time. Enjoy.
Chapter 12:
The Tremors Return
After their last humiliating defeat, Sarah and Sam come up with a new and dastardly plan to steal the notebooks. But, just as their finalising their plans, Sam gets contacted by one of the Sub-Admins under Admin Bannai's command. "Whatever plans you may have, cancel them!" he told them. "But We're nearly finished them!" Sam complains. "So use them at a later date or something!" the Sub-Admin replies angrily. "Admin Bannai has a plan to lure them out, but we need them to be left alone for a few days. Let them lower their guard before we strike. If they're still resisting us after this, then you may go through with your plans. But for now, stay put!" Sarah is about to take the radio and complain, but before she can, the Sub-Admin says, "If you do not stay put, and end up interrupting this attack, you will be sent right back to Sinnoh! Is that clear!" "Perfectly!" both Sarah and Sam say together. "Good,"" says the Sub-Admin. "That is all." Then, the radio cuts off. The two agents sigh, then get ready for when they can strike again.
The day after Team Terra's most recent failure to steal Max's notebooks, he and Bonnie decide to head off. Max asks Kenny if he'd like to join them, but Kenny turns the offer down. "I'm going to stay here for a few more days to get ready to leave," he explains. "Besides, if we're going to be rivals in the Contests, I don't want to know what you've got planned, or you to know what I've got planned." Max nods in agreement, then holds out his hand. Kenny takes it and the two of them shake hands. Then, Kenny turns to leave. But before he does, he turns back to Max and says, "Besides, I don't fancy being chased across the region by a group of terrorists and morons!" All three kids laugh, then go their separate ways, with Kenny heading back to the Trainer School, and Max and Bonnie setting off to Dewford Island.
Nothing much happens to the two of them over the next few days. In fact, not even Team Terra give them any trouble, which is something that only serves to put their guard up even more. The last time they lowered their guard after a lack of Team Terra attacks, they ended up having the shit beaten out of them and what Team Terra was after stolen. Not wanting a repeat of that incident, Bonnie keeps Dedenne out and using his antennae to keep a lookout for Sarah and Sam, while Max has Gallade out, using his psychic powers to sense for any danger. Whenever they stop, Bonnie switches on her Aura to see if any red Aura's appear. Despite her fear of using it after what Ash told her, she figures that using it like this won't cause any problems. Well, except for the reoccurring problem of her getting incredibly flustered whenever she sees the green Aura surrounding Max, which causes her to remember that other conversation she had with Ash back in Lumiose nearly 7 months ago. Unfortunately, she can't do that while walking yet, and she's almost positive that Ash will not teach her if she asked. So, she's content with having to stop and sit down to figure it out.
But, after nearly a week of nothing, they begin to think that maybe they've given up. They don't return their pokémon to their balls, but Bonnie does stop stopping every half hour to check for red Aura. That turns out to be a big mistake. This morning, they get up and set off without checking for any dangers. They walk for nearly an hour before the first sign of trouble occurs. As they walk, Max notices some pokémon begin to panic. They start running away in multiple directions, crying out in fear. Bonnie watches all of this in confusion, but Max stares at this with dread. "No," he mutters. "No, no, no, no, NO!" Then, without thinking, he takes Bonnie's hand and begins to run. Bonnie becomes really flustered by this as she runs after him. "What are you doing?" she asks. "What's wrong?" "We need to get out of here!" he says. "I should've known they'd pull something like this!" "Something like what?!" Bonnie asks.
The shaking of the ground answers her question. As it trembles, Bonnie almost loses her balance, but Max catches her and pulls her along. "Why didn't you tell me Hoenn has Earthquakes?" she asks him as they run. "We don't!" Max replies. "These aren't Earthquakes. They're manmade shakes we dubbed Tremors. About a year and a half ago they started, and only stopped on the day I met you." "How did they stop?" Bonnie asks, struggling to talk and run at the same time. "Because I fell into the last one and found the Jade Orb," Max explains. "These Tremors were caused by Team Terra during their search for it. Once they knew I had it, they stopped these attacks." Their conversation gets put on hold as the trembling only worsens. Small cracks begin to form in the earth, and Max fears that they will only grow wider as time goes on. "But why restart them now?" Bonnie wonders. "What good would they do them if Rayquaza has hidden the Jade Orb once more?"
The answer to her question comes in the form of The Tremors' full might erupting under their feet. The ground between them suddenly splits apart, and separating the pair. Max begins to panic and orders Gallade to Teleport Bonnie over to them. Gallade tries, but before he can fully dematerialise, the shaking ground causes him to lose focus and keep him on this side. He tries again, only for the same thing to happen. Swearing loudly, Max returns his attention to Bonnie, who's getting steadily further away from him. "Jump!" he shouts, holding out his hand. "I'll catch you!" Bonnie looks absolutely terrified of the idea. "This is the only option we have!" Max calls. "Gallade can't teleport, so if you don't jump, you'll fall right into their trap! Come on!" Bonnie nods and clasps her hands together. "Arceus save my little broken body!" she says, then she steps back a few metres, and jumps.
Hers and Max's hands just about manage to reach each other and stop her from falling into the pit below. Max almost loses his balance trying to pull her up, but he succeeds thanks to Gallade grabbing hold of his other arm and keeping him from falling over. Once the pair are reunited, they continue to run. By now, much of the ground has split apart, making it harder to run through. "Are you sure we can outrun this?" Bonnie asks. Max just nods. "This happened at least once a week back when they first started," he replies. "They only have a small radius that they affect. Once we're clear of that we'll be fine." Without another word they carry on running. They have to dodge around several opening pits and fallen logs as they sprint. They spot some other wild pokémon fleeing the scene, which gives Max and idea. He takes Bonnie's hand once more and leads her over to one of the fleeing wild pokémon, an Arcanine. "Do you trust me?" he asks Bonnie. Not knowing what he's planning, she just nods her head. Max takes a breath, waits for the Arcanine to stumble while running, then leaps onto it's back. Very luckily for them, if the Arcanine feels their landing, it doesn't protest. It just carries on running away from the violent shaking.
Eventually, just as Max promised, the make it out of the Tremors' range. By now, the Arcanine has started to realise that two young hitchhikers have jumped onto its back. thinking quickly, the pair grab onto some low hanging branches of a tree and pull themselves up into it. The Arcanine stops running and turns around, trying to find them. Eventually, it gives up, then runs off. Up in the tree, both Max and Bonnie sigh in relief and climb down. "That, was definitely, the stupidest idea, you've ever had!" Bonnie pants. "Yeah, it was," Max agrees, just as breathless. "Sorry about that." The two of them look back at the carnage they escaped from. "We need to tell someone about this" says Max. Bonnie nods. "But who?" she asks. "We're just two 11-year-olds, who would take us seriously?" Max thinks about this, before cringing slightly. "My sister" he says. Bonnie's face lights up at this. "Of course! We can tell her, and then she can warn everyone else!" Max nods, not looking too happy about this.
"What's wrong?" Bonnie asks. "You don't seem to thrilled by the idea." Max thinks about how to put it. "She's going to want to know why Team Terra would activate a Tremor right on us," he points out. "Meaning we will have to explain that they're after my notebook." Bonnie also cringes a little bit. "I didn't think of that," she admits. "But still, what choice do we have? If we don't warn anyone, this could strike in a populated area, and people could be hurt." Max nods, then makes up his mind. "Fine, we'll tell May," he relents. "But you're helping my come up with a reason for why she shouldn't take my notebooks away!" Bonnie thinks that Max is being a bit paranoid, but knows all to well the feeling of having an unshakable image of how an event will go, so she doesn't try to convince him otherwise. Instead, she leads the way to the nearest pokémon Centre, where they can place a call to May.
Sorry if the ending got a bit confusing or messy, but it's nearly 2 in the morning right now, and I just got back from a concert, so I'm really tired. But I'm going to be travelling a lot tomorrow, so I won't have the time to update this thing, which is why I updated it so late tonight. Now, no doubt the opening paragraph of this chapter felt like it could've been at the end of the last chapter. That's because it was supposed to be there, I just forgot about it. Anyway, I'm going to be in France for 2 weeks, and I've no idea what the Wi-Fi situation will be like. So, this may end up being done on my phone over the next few weeks. But either way, the next chapter should be out on Tuesday if all goes to plan. See you then.