You'll be pleased to note that I actually have a plan for this chapter. Because of this, this one will most likely be finished on time. Hopefully. But on the bright side, this won't be as short, or nearly as messy as the previous two. Now, with all that said, on with the story!
Chapter 69:
Double or Nothing
Standing on a hill overlooking a field, Sarah and Sam are camped out, watching intently for any sign of Max and Bonnie. It has been a lot harder to track them down since Brendan destroyed Team Terra's drone, but the pair have been able to successfully find them every time. This one should be no different. Sarah scours from one half of the hill, and Sam scours from the other. It's been a few days since their failed attack on Max and Bonnie, and both of them have been keeping an eye out, not just for them, but also that invisible figure that attacked them. They don't want a repeat of that, so they also make sure they don't use anything as big or destructive as the giant Araquanid again. Instead, they decide to use a much simpler tactic. Sarah has a grappling hook equipped to her belt. The moment one of them spots the duo they're after, Sarah will launch the grappling hook at them, and the two of them will glide over to them, snatch the notebooks away, and make their escape. All in all, they're pretty proud of this flawless plan.
Or at least, the pair of them think it's flawless. It doesn't take them long to detect a tiny little flaw in their plan. Or rather, it doesn't take long for that flaw to come bounding up to them. After looking out for about half an hour when Sam finally spots them. "Over here!" he calls. "I've got them!" Sarah whipped around and looked through her binoculars. Sure enough, Max and Bonnie are walking into the clearing on Sam's side of the hill. And better yet, Max is walking while writing in his notebook. Perfect. With a victorious grin on her face, Sarah pulls the grappling hook from her belt, loads it and aims it at a tree just past Max. But, before she can fire it, she hears footsteps coming from behind her. Worried that this might be the invisible person again, she whips around, ready to punch them. Instead, she finds a Manectric charging towards her. She has only enough time to react with shock, when the Manectric leaps onto her, grabbing the grappling hook from her hand in its maws, and taking off down the hill playfully. Sarah and Sam look at each other in shock, then anger. Then, they chase after it, shouting at it to give the grapple back.
Up in the air, Debbie and Cooper are flying around in their plane, watching Max and Bonnie from above. Ever since the most recent time their plane has been knocked down, the pair of them are especially determined to get him back. If they can deliver his knowledge to the base, they can finally wipe the grin form that boy's face. As they search, Debbie suddenly spots two other figures running towards Max and Bonnie. She pulls out her own binoculars and looks down at them. "Oh my Arceus," she says, a grin appearing on her face. "Hey Coop, look who it is." Cooper takes the binoculars and peers down at the figures. "well, well, well," he says. "If it isn't the freak and her follower." Both of them look at each other. "Do the planes guns work yet?" Cooper asks. Debbie pushes a few buttons, and a green light appears. "They are indeed," she replies. Cooper smirks evilly. "Well then," he says. "How about we kill two birds with one stone, in a matter of speaking." Debbie joins in on the smirking. "You read my mind," she replies, then readies the guns.
But before she can fire, their plane begins to shake. Looking around, they don't see what caused the plane to shake. So, they go back to aiming their guns at Sarah and Sam, and readying their trap for Ma and Bonnie. But then, their plane shakes again. Cursing, Cooper turns on the plane's radar. On it, he finds a small creature near their wing. Looping the plane around a bit, they come face to face with a Vibrava. Annoyed by this, Debbie tries to shoot it down, but the Vibrava dodges out of the way. "Did I get it?" she asks. Cooper looks around. "Nope," he replies. "I think you made it angry!" At that moment, the Vibrava struck the wing, braking it off. Both of them have just enough time to look at each other and curse, before the plane tumbles out of the sky, the Vibrava following close behind.
Blissfully unaware of all of this, Max and Bonnie continue on their merry way to Sootopolis. Along the way, Max learns that the nearest contest he can partake in is in Lilycove. So, Bonnie agrees to head there first, then go from there to Sootopolis. Sure it will add a few extra weeks onto their journey, but hopefully they'll be able to make up for it in no time. So, with a slight change in direction, they head off for Lilycove. After a few minutes, they arrive in an open field full of wild pokémon, with rolling hills going along it. they're enamoured with the scenery, so much so that Max decides to pull out his notebook and start writing things down. Bonnie sees this and laughs. "If you start walking slower, I'll start hitting you on the back of the head," she warns. "Duly noted," says Max. "Now, wouldn't this be a good place you find your 6th pokémon?" Bonnie's eyes widen at this, and she immediately begins looking around for the perfect pokémon.
Max meanwhile, is laser focused on writing his notebook. Suddenly, his train of thought is interrupted by the sound of shouting and stumbling. Looking to his right, he sees a Manectric bounding down a nearby hill with something in its mouth. Looking past it, Max can see two people chasing after it, demanding it give the thing in its mouth back to them. Max squints up at them, and recognises Sarah and Sam. He groans, and is about to call to Bonnie to let her know, when he hears her call his name. "Debbie and Cooper's plane is coming in to land," she says to him. "So, look out." He looks up and, sure enough, there they are, falling from the sky. Thinking quickly, Max runs over to the Manectric. He dives on it, knocking it away from the falling debris just as the plane crashes in front of Sarah and Sam, stopping them so suddenly that they crash into each other.
Not long after that, Debbie and Cooper float down with parachutes. As they float down, Debbie spots Max and begins aiming her descent towards him. But, before she can inform Cooper of Max's whereabouts, something falls out of the sky and slices through both of their parachutes. The two of them fall to the ground on top of Sarah and Sam. By the time all of this happens, Bonnie has caught up to Max. Both of them chuckle at what just happened, then look for whatever it was that cut their parachutes. Looking around, Max spots a Vibrava lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious. "Take the Manectric," he tells Bonnie. "I'll grab the Vibrava." Bonnie nods and begins to try to rouse the Manectric. While she does that, Max runs to the Vibrava, careful to avoid Team Terra, who are currently arguing with each other as they try to untangle themselves from each other and the parachutes.
"What are you two doing here?!" Debbie shouts. "Us?" Sarah demands. "We were here first! So we should be asking YOU what you're doing here!" "Eh, guys," says Sam, but he's cut off by Cooper. "We were tracking those two through that forest for at least a day now!" he argues. "By that argument, we were here first! So, you two can leave before we make you!" "We're not going anywhere!" Sarah argues back. "They're our targets, so we'll be the ones to bring them in!" "Eh, guys!" Sam says again, but once again, he's cut off. "That's hilarious that you think you could actually do that," Debbie laughs. "If I recall correctly, you'd been chasing them for half a year through Kalos, and couldn't catch them. And, you've been chasing them for over half a year now, and still haven't brought them in!" "Like you've done any better?" Sarah shoots back. "You've been chasing them for just as long as us through Hoenn, and you've been no more successful than us!" "GUYS!" Sam shouts then. "What?!" all three of them turn to him. "They're getting away!" Sam exclaims, pointing to Max and Bonnie. The two of them have managed to convince the Manectric to allow them to ride it. Max has taken the Vibrava and is carrying it as they ride away from Team Terra. The four of them glare at each other, then run after the pair.
Max looks back at the four agents to notice them running after them. He swears, then tell Bonnie to try to get the Manectric to move faster. Looking around again, he sees that the four agents have climbed onto their own pokémon, and are chasing after them. While doing so, Sarah and Sam are also shooting at Debbie and Cooper with their pokémon's moves, and Debbie and Cooper are doing the same. Even though Max and Bonnie have a head start, the four of them are beginning to catch up. "Bonnie," he calls. "We need to stop!" "Are you crazy?!" she asks. "If we stop, they'll catch us!" "Not if we duck under them," Max points out. "They're all on flying pokémon. We can go beneath them, then slip away!" Bonnie thinks about this, then nods. She and Max then roll off of the Manectric, and Bonnie pulls the Manectric to the ground. The four agents soar overhead, before crashing into a hill. Max, Bonnie and Manectric take the opportunity to start running again. As they do, Max notices that there's something in Manectric's mouth. He raises his hand to the pokémon's mouth, silently asking for permission to take it. The Manectric drops the thing, and Max sees that it's a grappling hook. He grins at this and shows it to Bonnie, who also grins.
At that moment, the Vibrava Max is carrying wakes up. This adds to Max's plans. "Ok, I've got an idea," he says, "but it's mental." "Better than nothing," Bonnie replies. "Let's hear it." Max goes through his plan to Bonnie, rummaging through his bag as he does. At last he finds what he's looking for. As he does, Team Terra have managed to detangle themselves from the hill, and have begun to run over to them. While Bonnie readies her part of the plan, Max uses the item he grabbed on Vibrava, a rare candy. As he'd hoped, Vibrava glows. It lets out a triumphant cry as it evolves into a Flygon. Max grins at this, then turns to Bonnie, who nods to inform him that she's ready. So, the pair hop back on to Manectric and the pokémon takes off. Team Terra hop on to their pokémon as well and pursue them. Flygon flies overhead, as close as it can to Manectric. Team Terra get closer and closer to them, reaching out to grab hold of Max.
At that moment, Max raises the grappling hook. Bonnie grabs hold of him, and he fires it, sending the hook flying up to Flygon. Flygon catches it in its beak, careful not to cut itself, then it takes off, pulling Max and Bonnie away from Manectric. Sarah, Sam, Debbie, and Cooper watch as the two kids fly away from them. They're about to turn their pokémon to follow after them, but before they can, Sam spots something on Manectric. He taps Sarah and points to it. When they flew away from Manectric, they left Dedenne behind. Now, both electric pokémon are charging up a powerful electric attack. All the four of them can do is say, "Oh shi-" before both electric pokémon launch their attacks. They struck the four of them and their pokémon dead on, sending them flying off into the sky. Both Dedenne and Manectric do a little victory dance as Flygon gently lowers Max and Bonnie back down to the ground.
"Well, that was epic," Bonnie states. Max nods in agreement, before attaching the grappling hook to his belt. "I am so keeping this!" he says, which makes Bonnie laugh. Then, they turn to the Flygon and Manectric. "Hey," says Max, "thanks for helping us. Even if it was by accident at first." The five of them laugh. Then, both Max and Bonnie look at each other, before pulling out a pokéball each. Then, Max turns to Flygon, while Bonnie looks at Manectric. "So, we were wondering if you'd like to join us?" Both pokémon look at the balls, then at the humans. Then, they both agree and allow themselves to be captured. Now, with their completed teams, the two of them continue on their way to Lilycove.
So, it turns out this is coming out on Sunday after all huh. Sorry about that, but I was busy yesterday. I'm quite hungover right now though, so that's why the end of this chapter was a little all over the place. But, I have some semblance of an idea as to what will happen in the next few chapters, so hopefully they won't be too messy for a bit. I really don't know at this point. I'm tired. See you in the next one.