Fun fact, I actually came up with this idea a year ago, but I haven't been able to think of where to fit it in until yesterday. I was thinking about putting it in Volume 3, but then I thought about it, and felt that it fit here better. So, here we are, with a chapter where I actually know what happens in it! Woo! Enjoy.
Chapter 16:
Divide and Conquer
Max, Bonnie, May and Drew hide out in the field for a while, waiting for the sound of Team Terra's bickering to leave them. When they finally stop, Drew sends out his Roserade and has him check on them. A few minutes later, Roserade returns, informing Drew that Team Terra have left. With sighs of relief, they all stand up from where they were hiding in the grass, and set about what they were planning to do in the field. Bonnie runs around with her pokémon, training them up some more and trying to see if she can get another pokémon on her team. Max sits down on a rock with his notebook out, writing down any information about all of the pokémon that he sees. May puts on her Blaziken Mask mask, summons Blaziken and Mega evolves him, then tries to make fire appear on her fists. As usual, she ends up sweaty and crops her shirt. Drew starts off with practicing for the contests, but he ends up distracted when he watches May training.
Max notices this and smirks, then gets up and walks over to his sister. "Hey May!" he calls. May stops training to look at him. "What's up?" she asks. "I was just thinking that you should dress like this when you become the Blaziken Mask," he tells her. "Drew seems to really like it." May goes bright red and looks over at Drew, who starts looking away, just as red. May then glares at Max, who takes off running before May can turn her embarrassment to anger and run after him. Bonnie watches this and laughs her head off at the sight, before making mental notes on how to help Max matchmake the two of them.
They end up spending the entire day in that field, even camping out in it. The next morning, they decide to head off for the gym, going a different route than yesterday, just in case those Team Terra idiots are still hanging around. Bonnie wasn't able to catch a pokémon in the field, but she was able to get the pokémon that she has even stronger. Now, they're setting off on the long way around the island, hoping to avoid Team Terra. As they walk, Max takes out one of his audio logs and begins to speak into it, describing all of the pokémon he sees. He doesn't notice Bonnie watching him do that, clearly totally smitten with him. She's so distracted by this that she trips over a rock and nearly walks into a tree a few minutes later. Giggling to herself, May decides it's time for a bit of payback. She walks up to Max and whispers to him, "If you keep doing that now, I'd say Bonnie will crash into something." Max and Bonnie go bright red at this and Bonnie looks away while Max puts away the audio log.
Eventually, the path they're on leads them to a river. Max and May recognise it as the same river where Brock caught his Mudkip. Bonnie hears this and thinks about trying to catch one herself. But before she can get very far with that plan, Max informs her that Brock caught Mudkip after helping save the reservation that's on this river, which dampens her mood. But then her eyes light up as she realises that there will be tonnes of cute baby pokémon for her to see, so she eagerly runs on ahead to get to the pokémon reservation. But she barely makes it 50 metres when a Psybeam shoots out from the trees, stopping her in her tracks. Much to everyone's annoyance, Sarah and Sam appear out from the trees. Max, Bonnie, May and Drew try to go back the way they came, but before they can get very far, they're stopped by another attack, this time from Debbie and Cooper.
Cooper glares up at Sarah and Sam, before staring down at Max. "It seems we all had the same idea," he comments. "But we'll be the ones to take him back to the Boss." "Fat chance of that happening!" Sam declares. "It'll be us who earns favour with the Boss by bringing those notebooks in!" Debbie laughs at that. "Please," she says, "you two couldn't bring them in when thry had the Jade Orb! What makes you think this will be any different!" Sarah growls at this. "Funny," she says "I don't remember either of you trying to bring them in." Both of them steamed at this. We were stationed here at the time!" they exclaimed. "But now we'll get our chance here!" Cooper adds. By this time, Max and the others take the opportunity of their arguing to try to sneak away. Unfortunately for them, they're spotted. "Where do you think you're going!" all 4 Team Terra agents shout. "We're not ginished with you!" Then, they point towards their targets. "Pelliper, Water Pulse!" Debbie shouts. "Dragon's Breath Altaria!" Cooper calls. "Gourgeist, Shadow Ball!" Sarah orders. "Mr. Mime use Psybeam!" Sam exclaims.
All 4 attacks come hurtling at Max and the others. Without thinking, Bonnie runs forward and yells, "NO!" As she does, a powerful pulse of Aura shoots out of her body, stopping the attacks from hitting any of them. In order to keep her Aura secret, Max pretends to stumble backwards, making it seem like she was pushing him out of the way. The combination of the attacks plus Bonnie's Aura leaves a huge dust cloud. Max wants to use this as an opportunity to escape, but before he can, the path begins to crumble. Team Terra, May and Drew manage to get away from the chaos. Max tries to grab Bonnie to pull her with him, but he's too slow. The pulse of Aura left her exhausted, so she's unable to reach out to him. All Max can do is watch in horror as she tumbles into the river below. He cries her name, then takes his bag off of his back. He pulls out the folder with his notebooks, and hands it to May. "Take this and meet me further down the river!" he tells her. "Max what are you-?" she tries to ask, but before he can finish, Max pulls off his glasses, shoes, socks and t-shirt and dives into the water after Bonnie.
"MAX YOU MORON!" May shouts, but he's already hit the water. May wants to go in after her, but Drew stops her. "Let's do as he says," he tells her. "We have his notebooks. We can keep it away from them." May wants to argue, but Drew's already put Max's stuff into his bag. He zips it shut, then takes May's hand and pulls her into the forest. By this time, the dust cloud has cleared. Debbie and Cooper immediately run down the river after Max. Sarah is about to follow, when Sam stops her. "Wait," he tells her. "I don't think Maple took his notebooks with him." Sarah looks at him with bewilderment. "But if he didn't, then who-?" Then it clicks for her. She smirks at Sam, thinking she could kiss him. "Where did that come from!?" she wonders to herself. Shaking the thought away, she follows Sam away from the river and through the forest, after May and Drew.
Max hits the water feet first, and is assaulted by how cold it is. But he ignores it and focuses on finding his friend. "BONNIE!" he shouts, as he struggles to keep his head above the water. "BONNIE WHERE ARE YOU!?" Realising that she may have sunk below the water, Max takes a deep breath then dives underneath. Without his glasses, he can barely see, so he feels around for her. Unable to find her in time, he resurfaces and takes another deep breath, then plunges back in. Feeling around some more, he finally feels human hair in his hands. Swimming over, he managed to find Bonnie. Max quickly wraps his arms around her and pulls her up to the surface of the water. He wipes the water from his eyes and listens carefully. Even over the roar of the river, he can hear her breathing. Overwhelmed with relief, Max floats in his back, keeping Bonnie's head resting on his chest. "It's ok," he says, more to himself than anyone else. "It's ok. I've gotcha. I've gotcha." Careful not to let her face get submerged, Max checks for any bits of dry land to allow Bonnie to lie on and recover. Luckily, he spots one not far off down the stream. "Ok," he says. "We're just going to ride the rapids for a bit, and get you on dry land. Once you've recovered, we'll meet up with my sister."
Once he reaches the inlet, Max grabs hold of it and hoists Bonnie up onto it. Then, he pulls himself up and lies down next to her for a few seconds to catch his breath. Then, he gets up and pulls her the rest of the way up onto the inlet. Once she's completely out of the water, he lies back down to finish catching his breath. He'll need the energy for when Bonnie wakes and they have to go downstream to meet with his sister. But, he barely has 2 minutes to take a breather when he hears 2 voices approaching. "Maple and Citron should be nearby," says the voice of Debbie. "Keep quiet and keep an ear out." "I know!" the voice of Cooper snaps back. "And you need to remember that we're only aiming to hurt Maple, not kill him, and only shoot if he doesn't come with us willingly." Panic begins to fill Max as he hears the two agents approach. Thinking quickly, he feels around his pockets for his pokéballs, and comes across his Rotom Phone. He pulls it out of the pockets of his trousers and presses the on button. To his immense relief, it still works. He heads to the Nav and checks his location. Luck seems to be on his side for once, as there is a spot further down the river where it loops back a bit, at least enough to allow him to make it back to this spot. So, he covers Bonnie in foliage to hide her presence. "Don't move," he tells her, on the off chance she can hear him. "I'll be back in a bit. I just need to lure those idiots away." Then, he finishes covering her up, then jumps into the water. He makes sure the Nav still has Bonnie's location pinned, then he swims off down the river.
May and Drew run through the forest as fast as possible, sticking as close to the river as possible. May wants to make sure it's possible for her to catch sight of Max in the water whenever possible. But, she also wants to keep out of sight of Team Terra, lest they try to take the notebooks away from them. As they run, they hear a pair of footsteps running behind them. May summons Blaziken, mega evolves him, and has him knock down a few trees to slow their pursuers down. Unfortunately, the sound of small explosions echoes behind them means they aren't being slowed down. As they run, May pulls out her Blaziken Mask once more. She puts it on, then crops her t-shirt. Seeing this makes Drew go a deep shade of red. "Eh, not that I'm complaining, but why are you doing that?" he asks. "It's more comfortable like this," she replies. "Plus, Max is right, seeing the affect it has on you is hilarious." Drew stutters. "Ch-PP-Wuh, I-It doesn't have an affect on me!" he exclaims, but his red face says otherwise.
Before May can continue teasing the boy, she suddenly runs headlong into something. She flies backwards and hits the ground hard, her head stinging. "Are you alright?" Drew asks, helping her up. "I'm fine," she replies. "What did I hit?" Drew puts his hand in front of him and it comes in contact with something. "A barrier!" he realises. He takes May's hand and is about to start running a different direction, when he runs into one as well. With a sinking feeling, May tries the other side, then back the way they came. Sure enough, all 4 routes are blocked off. At that moment, Sarah and Sam walk up to them, with Sam's Mr. Mime walking behind them. "Well now, isn't this a difficult situation for you?" Sam asks gloatingly. "But don't worry, we won't keep you in there forever," Sarah adds. "Just give us the notebooks and we'll let you go and catch up to your brother."
May glares at them, then looks up at Blaziken. They nod to each other, then face one of the barriers. Before Drew or Team Terra have time to stop her, she and Blaziken punch the barrier as hard as they can. While May's fist still doesn't ignite, The force of their punches is enough to break down the barrier. "Alright!" she cheers as she takes off running. "Drew let's go!" But Drew doesn't follow her. She turns around and feels fear course through her. Sarah has Drew in a chokehold, while Sam smirks at May. "Give us the notebooks May Maple," he says. "Or your boyfriend here gets it!" Normally, May would be quick to deny that they're dating, but seeing them threatening him is enough to make her rage boil over. "Get your filthy hands off of him!" she shouts. "Blaziken, deal with the Mr. Mime! I've got these losers!" Mega Blaziken nods, then runs forward, as does May, both of them intent on saving Drew, then Max. They both reach their targets, and throw a punch at the same time. During this incident, their sheer determination and anger allows them to be completely in sync, and right as May is about to punch Sarah in the face, her fist ignites.
Her flaming punch strikes Sarah right across the face, causing her to let go of Drew and go flying across the forest. She crashes into a tree and gets knocked out. Sam abandons the chase to go and check on her, giving May and Drew a chance to escape. As they run, May keeps marvelling at her hands. "I did it!" she exclaims. "I did it!" "Good job May!" says Drew. "But, do you think you could hold off on the celebrating until we found Max and Bonnie?" May nods, then the two of them return to the river. As they run, May tries again a few times to cause her fists to ignite, but she can't. "Practice that later!" Drew reprimands her. "We need to focus!" May apologises once more and returns Blaziken to his normal form, but leaving him out in case she needs him. And as it turns out, need him she does, because after another hour of running by the river, they hear the unmistakeable sound of Bonnie screaming.
When Max leaves Bonnie on the bank, he dives under the water to avoid being seen leaving her behind. Once he feels that he's far enough away from her, he resurfaces and starts shouting her name, telling her to follow him. His ploy works. He hears Debbie cry out, "Over there!" and hears them start trying to shoot at him. He swerves and dodges around, feeling their bullets whizz past him. He takes cover behind a large rock to allow himself to catch his breath. He carefully looks around, trying to come up with a plan. He spots a few loose branches and leaves, and thinks of something. It's risky, but it's better than nothing. So, he mentally prepares himself, then swims out from behind the rock. This turns out to be a mistake. As he leaves the shelter of the rock, a bullet finally makes contact, striking him in the leg.
Max cries out in pain and swallows a little bit of water. Still, he persists and pulls out Wingull. "Wingull!" he coughs. "Use *cough cough* Gust to *cough* block their line of sight." Wingull looks at Max with sympathy and worry, but does as he says. Wingull blasts the branches and leaves with Gust, causing them to fly everywhere. She also hits the ground with it as well, causing dust to fly up too. Now, Debbie and Cooper's view of Max is obscured. But that doesn't stop them. They start firing their guns at random along the river, hoping to strike Max again and cause him to cry out. Max has to move somewhat slowly through the water thanks to his leg. Each time he moves it sends pain shooting up it, but he doesn't dare make a sound. luckily for him, he manages to avoid being hit, that is, until he's nearly away from them, as one of their stray bullets strikes him in the shoulder. Max has to bite his tongue slightly to prevent from crying out, as his shoulder begins to bleed.
The moment he's clear from the distraction, he hides behind a rock again and grabs hold of his shoulder to try to stop the bleeding. "Go away," he silently pleads. "GO away, go away, go away!" To his relief, he hears them begin to walk away. But then, Cooper shouts out. "He's bleeding! Over there!" Cursing to himself, max takes off again, slower than before now that he only has the use of 2 limbs. He keeps swimming until he comes across a fork in the road. Thanking Arceus for finally giving him a break, Max grabs hold of a branch to stop himself from moving. Then, he kicks out, causing the blood from his leg and shoulder to flow down one direction. this move hurts so much he has to bite down on his free hand to prevent himself from screaming. Debbie and Cooper spot the blood in the water and follow it, allowing Max to go the other way.
He finds another bank and climbs up on it, allowing himself to check his wounds. His leg is charred black where he'd been shot, and blood flows freely from an open wound. Clearly the bullet had burned his skin, and the water had pulled that burned flesh off. It's the same for his shoulder. He decides not to look at them and pulls out his phone. Thankfully, it still works. He checks the map and finds that he can reach the bank where he left Bonnie if he continues down this stream. But, he may run into Debbie and Cooper again, so he comes up with another plan. He summons Grovyle and orders him to create a cover for him out of foliage. Grovyle gives him a look of concern, but Max brushes him off, telling him that he's fine. So, Grovyle does as he's told. By this time, Max has been in the water for so long that he's shivering, and even feels a sneeze building. He tries to resist it and ignore his shivering as he covers himself in Grovyle's disguise, then resumes swimming in the river.
Sure enough, he comes across Debbie and Cooper once more. Just in case the disguise doesn't work, he releases Gallade and quietly tells him to destroy a few trees to lure them away. Like with Grovyle and Wingull, Gallade looks at him with concern, but Max brushes him off as well. So, Gallade does what he's told. Luckily, Debbie and Cooper start running in that direction, totally ignoring his foliage. Gallade returns and Max calls him back, then starts swimming quicker to get back to Bonnie as fast as possible. This turns out to be another mistake, and a costly one at that. As he swims, the current catches him, and pulls him forward, causing him to smash the back of his head into a rock. This impact makes Max nearly vomit. but he forces it down and finally makes it back to Bonnie. He climbs up next to her and removes some of the foliage around her. She's still unconscious, but other than that she's fine. Max sighs with relief, then feels his strength finally leave him. As he falls in and out of consciousness, he feels the back of his head. He has just enough time to feel the warm sticky feeling of blood, before he finally loses consciousness.
Cliff-hanger! Haven't done one of those in a while. I was going to include Bonnie's reaction to seeing him in that state, but this has gone on long enough, so I thought it would be better if I stuck that in the next chapter. For once, it isn't almost the next day when this is finished! Go me! Now, I finally landed a fucking job, so I won't have the luxury of time to write for a while, meaning my schedule may start to slow. Sorry about that, but I'll try my best to keep it up. See you on Tuesday where we see Bonnie return the favour for Max saving her life.