Obligatory "this may not come out until tomorrow" which almost always doesn't end up happening. But seriously though, I don't have a complete plan for this one, unlike the past batch of chapters. In other words, this will probably be a little bit messy. But, knowing me it won't be out until the evening, which gives me plenty of time to come up with a more substantial plan. We'll see. Also as it turns out, I'm an idiot, as I've been calling Slateport City, Slateport Town by mistake. Woops. Anyway, enjoy.
Chapter 21:
Attack on Slateport City.
Standing at the bow of the ship, Max and Bonnie are able to see Slateport City come into view. Despite how much smaller much of Hoenn's towns and cities are compared to Kalos's, Bonnie is still impressed by the sight of the seaside City. May and Drew walk up behind the pair and smile fondly at the town. "This is where I had my first contest" May comments. Drew laughs at this. "This is also where we met" he says. May nods, going slightly pink. Max spots this and grins. "Isn't this also where you first started giving her, sorry, Beautifly, roses?" he asks. "Isn't that tradition still going?" Both Coordinators go bright red at this and glare at Max. Bonnie meanwhile has hearts in her eyes. "Wait, really?" she exclaims. Drew shoots Max a look that clearly says, "Tell her, and I will kill you." But Max 'misses' that look and explains that Drew sometimes gives May red roses, saying they're for Beautifly. Bonnie gets giddy at this. "Really?" she asks. "That's so cute, because in the language of flowers, red means-!" But before she can finish that, Drew panics and covers her mouth with his hand. "What was she going to say?" Max asks teasingly. "Oh I'm sure it was nothing important," Drew says quickly. "I just covered her mouth because I was getting irritated by her squealing." Max clearly doesn't believe him, and decides to try to convince May to look that up later.
The boat docks at Slateport, and Max practically races off of it, eager to go to the Contest Hall and get himself a contest pass. Meanwhile, May wants to prepare a video using the footage she took of the carnage from the Tremor that occurred outside of Rustboro. So, Max and Bonnie head off to the Contest Hall, while May and Drew go into the nearest Pokémon Centre in order to properly put together the pictures and video May took of the aftermath. Once Max and Bonnie are finished, they join the older pair inside. Drew decides to give Max a bit of help with preparing for his first contest, in order to give him a fighting chance tomorrow. "And I'm sure it's got nothing to do with you wanting to look good in front of my older sister is it?" Max teases. "Shut up, before I make you" Drew threatens silently. May watches the two boys depart, and chuckles slightly. Then she refocuses on putting together her warning, while Bonnie sits with her and recounts what happened. they're so focused, that before they realise it, over 20 minutes have passed. They would've been out of it for a lot longer, if it wasn't for Dedenne, who suddenly gets very frightened, and tries to run away from the building. Both girls try to calm him down, when they realise what this means.
Drew leads Max to a small open space near to the edge of the City. Luckily for them, there aren't any Coordinators out here, which means that whatever Max has planned, it will not be stolen or countered too easily. Once Drew is satisfied with the place he chose, he tells Max to take out the pokémon that he has on him. Max produces Grovyle, Gallade and Wingull, and Drew proceeds to study them. "Can you mega evolve Gallade?" he asks. "Because I think that would be your best bet." Max pulls out his key stone and taps it, causing Gallade to Mega Evolve. Drew smiles at this. "Perfect," he says. "I think your best option will be to use Gallade in this contest. But save the mega evolution for the battling round. That way the judges and your opponent will be caught off guard." Max makes a note of that, then returns Gallade to normal. He returns Grovyle and Wingull to their balls and Drew tells him to order Gallade to use all of his moves. They spend the next 5 or so minutes going over everything that Gallade can do, and what Max can have him do during the appeals round.
Once both boys are satisfied, they then move on the battling round. Drew summons his Roserade and Mega Evolves her, while Max does the same with Gallade. Over the next 15 minutes, the two have a few battles. At first, Max is more focused on winning the battle, which Drew keeps reminding him won't guarantee a victory. "Remember, the battles are under a time limit," he says. "So, while winning the battle will give you the victory by default, there's always a chance that you won't be able to within the time limit. So, my advice is to focus on making your pokémon's moves as flashy as possible. That way, they look better, and you'll be able to impress the judges more. Now, try again." So, Max tries again, and again, and again. With each battle, his moves grow more flashy, and he gets better at battling in the style of contests. After 20 minutes since they left the girls, the two boys are tired, but satisfied with Max progress. "Now, why don't we head back to the girls," Drew says. "We'll see what kind of video May has put together."
As they walk, Max gets a teasing glint in his eye. "Why did you help me?" he asks. "Surely you just gave me more of an advantage if we ever go against each other in Contests." Drew laughs. "Not likely," he says. "If we ever face each other, I'd trounce you. And I thought I told you, I did it so that you won't lose spectacularly in your first Contest and get discouraged." Max's teasing glint gets brighter. "Are you sure there's no other reason?" he asks. "Something to do with my sister, perhaps?" Drew goes red at this. "Will you stop that?!" he exclaims. "Not until you tell her how you feel!" Max replies in a sing-song voice. "For the last time," Drew shouts, "May and I are just friends!" Max laughs at him. "People who are just friends don't go bright red when standing next to each other" Max points out. Drew is about to shout at him again, when a thought comes to him. "Then explain the way you and Bonnie act around each other," he retorts. "Because if I have a crush, then you're hopeless for her." Max goes so red his glasses fog up. Drew laughs his head off at the sight.
Max wants to argue against that, but before he can, he sees a few people's pokémon begin to panic and start trying to flee. Some pokémon even pick up their trainers to help them escape. Everyone starts panicking, trying to figure out what's causing them to do this. Max and Drew meanwhile look at each other, the same dark thought entering their minds. Without another word, they run towards the centre of the City, determined to reach the Pokémon Centre before disaster strikes. But of course, it's already too late. The two of them barely make it 20 metres before the ground begins to shake. Everyone in the City starts to panic, as the realisation of what's happening finally hits everyone. "Tremor!" someone shouts. "The Tremors have returned!" That, was the spark that struck the powder keg, as everyone starts running away from Slateport as fast as they can. Some people run to the routes out of town, while others make their way to the dock, hoping to get on a boat, or at least swim away from the carnage. Max and Drew aren't one of those people. They struggle through the crowd, trying desperately to find their friends. But while they do that, they don't realise that there are two others desperately chasing after him.
After their embarrassing defeat on the boat, Sarah and Sam hide amongst the crowd, waiting for the ship to dock in Slateport so they can try again to take Max's notebooks. Unfortunately for them, they quickly lose him in the crowd. They spend the better part of half an hour trying to find him, but to no avail. Eventually, just as they were about to give up, they finally spot Maple and the green haired Coordinator walking towards the city centre. Grinning to each other at the stroke of luck, the two of them began to follow. However, before they could get very far, all of the pokémon in the area begin to panic. Sarah and Sam look at each other again. "They didn't..." Sarah whimpers. Sam shakes his head. "They wouldn't," he says. "Not if they knew we were here." That's when the same thought clicks in their heads. "Those bastards!" they both exclaim. That's when the ground starts to shake, and all Mirror World breaks loose.
Max and Drew run through the crowd towards the pokémon centre where May and Bonnie are, while Sarah and Sam run after them, hoping to nab the books and take off before they get hurt. While they run, Drew pulls out his phone and calls May. "Come on," he says. "Pick up pick up pick up!" May answers, clearly panicking. "Where are you?" Drew asks. "Did you manage to get out of the Pokémon Centre?!" May shakes her head. "Bonnie and I are still trapped inside, with a few other people." "How's Bonnie?" Max asks. May's face sours. "She accidentally unleashed a pulse of Aura when the building began to collapse. The pulse has stopped the building from collapsing on us, at least for now, but she's knocked out." Max begins to panic at this, and picks up the pace. Normally, Drew would start teasing him, but due to the situation he decides not to. With this in mind, the two boys pick up the pace, almost falling over on several occasions as the Tremors get worse.
Then, the cracks start forming, and a building begins to collapse. Max and Drew need to take a detour to avoid it. All around them, people are evacuating the city, while all the law enforcement and rescue services try their best to save as many people as possible and curb the damage to the city. All around them, people are wondering what is causing this, as when Team Terra launched their Tremor attacks last year, they never directly attacked cities. As such, Slateport can't handle the stress of this situation, and begins to fall apart. Max is strongly reminded of the Second Kalos Crisis that occurred only 2 months before, and feels himself start to panic. But he pushes that panic down and carries on running towards the Pokémon Centre.
The two boys reach the Pokémon Centre to find that the entrance has been completely blocked by rubble. "May!" Max and Drew shout. "May are you alright!?" "We're fine!" May calls. "The roof has partially collapsed, so I can't summon Blaziken!" Drew swears, then begins to pull apart the rubble. "Wait!" Max exclaims. "If you move the wrong one, it might do more damage! Give me a moment." Then, he begins to look over the rocks. "Come on Observant State," he mutters to himself. "Don't fail me now." As he analyses the rocks, the Tremors only cause more damage to be done. After a few minutes, he finds the right rock to remove. He pulls it out, and some of the debris in front of the door fall away, allowing the people trapped inside to get out. May comes out first, carrying an unconscious Bonnie on her back. Max takes over carrying her, and everyone begins running out of the City.
As they do, they're watched by Sarah and Sam. From their vantage point, they see that the route everyone is taking will result in them being trapped. Sarah grins at this. "This is perfect," she says. "When they get stuck, we can get the notebook." She's about to go after them, when Sam stops her. "Think about this for a second," he says. "If we get the notebooks back to base, Debbie and Cooper are going to get all the credit for causing the Tremor." Sarah swears as she realises he's right. "So, what do you have in mind?" she asks. A smirk appears on Sam's face. "I have an idea," he says. "Follow me." Then, he leads Sarah after Max and the others.
Meanwhile, they continue to desperately try to escape The Tremor as it continues to destroy Slateport. They dodge around crumbling buildings, and have to jump over the the larger gaps in the road as they appear. Just as they think they're about to make it to the edge of town, a building begins to tip sideways, falling in their way. May summons Blaziken and has him try to break through the rubble to give them a shortcut. Unfortunately, he's not strong enough on his own, and there's a lot of rubble to break through. Just as Max thinks that they'll be trapped by the falling debris, a rocket comes hurtling out of one of the buildings that are still intact, which blasts the falling building away. Without stopping to consider what had happened, everyone legs it to the edge of town. As he runs, Max briefly stops to look back at where the rocket came from. He sees two figures standing in the broken window. But before he can properly make them out, May grabs his hand and pulls him along. Once they're all a safe distance from the City, all everyone can do is watch as Slateport falls to pieces.
There was going to be more to this chapter, but I've run out of steam, and I want these scenes to be a bit more meaningful, so I'm moving them to the next chapter. That's why the end of this chapter got a bit shit, and the Tremor attack wasn't as good as I hoped. I kept getting distracted while writing, and then ended up growing bored. But, I won't have any distractions when I write Thursday's chapter, so that will be a good one. So, sorry for how lacklustre this one is, and I'll see you all in 2 days with the next chapter.