As usual, not much of a plan for this one, sorry. I have the basic outline for this one, but it's probably going to be a short chapter, and one that'll come out very late on Tuesday, perhaps even on Wednesday. Hopefully that won't happen, but you never know. I don't have anything else to add, so let's get on with this.
Chapter 11:
The Matchmaking Minx Strikes Again.
After the battle, Max and Bonnie went to have lunch with Tierno and Shauna to discuss what they're going to be doing next. Max wants to stick around in Rustboro for a few days to catch up with Kenny and a few other friends, while Tierno wants to get going again and make it to Slateport for the next contest. as for the girls, they're alright with either. So, Tierno and Shauna decide to go on ahead to Slateport, while Max and Bonnie stay in Rustboro for a bit while Max catches up with Kenny and they work out where to go next. With that decision made, the two pairs part ways, with Tierno promising to meet Max in Slateport if he makes up his mind about being a coordinator. Max nods in agreement, then they head to a nearby Pokémon Centre to book a room for a few nights.
Over those few days, Max and Kenny spend a bit of time catching up on what's been happening in their lives. As it turned out, Kenny had no idea about the Second Kalos Crisis, because he doesn't watch the news very often. He's both amazed and horrified when he hears about how closely involved Max and Bonnie were in stopping the tragedy. Max leaves out the fact that he and Bonnie are being hunted by Team Terra, lest it bring any more trouble their way. While the 2 boys catch up, Bonnie spends her time training up her team for the next gym battle. After a bit of deliberating, the pair decide to head to Dewford Island so she can take on the fighting type gym. Max suggests that she bring Talonflame in to win the battle, but she refuses. "I told you, I want to start from scratch," she says. "I can't do that if I bring in a pokémon that I used in Kalos."
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the two of them, Dedenne has begun to plot something. He hasn't tried since his failed attempt with Floette's flower back in Kalos, but now, he feels that the time is right to try to matchmake the pair again. After his 2 previous attempts failed, Dedenne has been trying hard to think of a new plan to matchmake Max and Bonnie. Unfortunately for him, he hasn't had much opportunity to do that. Now that they've stopped in Rustboro for a few days, and there's no one here that's constantly hanging out with them, he has the perfect opportunity to enact his new plan. All he needs to do is to keep Kenny busy for a few minutes during the evening. Back in Laverre, he noticed the way Max stared at Bonnie when the light of the sunset hit her. So, he decides to capitalise on that, and have him see her bathed in that light again. If this went to plan, then the sight will make Max finally confess his feelings for her. Dedenne feels confident that this shall work.
When the evening came, Dedenne set his plan into motion. Distracting Kenny is easy enough. All Dedenne has to do is make a mess in the trainer school. Roxanne doesn't see him make the mess, but she does hear it happen, as does Kenny. Because Roxanne needs to prepare for her class tomorrow, she has Kenny clean it up, apologising for it as well. After making sure to leave a token of apologies to Kenny and Roxanne for making the mess, Dedenne heads off in search of Max. He finds him watching a flock of Taillow, and writing down everything he notes about them in his notebook. With Max located, his next objective is to find Bonnie and lead her over to him. He finds her relatively easily as well, as she's using a small patch of grass outside of the trainer school to train for the Dewford Island Gym. When she spots Dedenne, she begins to try to call him over. "Where have you been!?" she asks. "Come here, we need to get training!" However, instead of running over to her, he turns around and runs in the opposite direction. "Hey Dedenne!" Bonnie calls, beginning to run after him. "Where are you going!? Come back!" Dedenne pays her no mind and continues to run towards Max, leading Bonnie to the moment where she will finally find love.
Max has spent much of the evening in his Observant State, to the point where it seemed like nothing would break him out of it. However the sound of Bonnie calling for Dedenne was able to snap him back to the real world, which is lucky for Dedenne, because he was scared that he'd have to shock Max back to reality, something that probably would've given his plans away. Max hears Bonnie coming and turns to look at her. "What's wrong?" he asks. "You sound-" But whatever he was going to say next is lost in the æther when he catches sight of Bonnie. Like in Laverre, the evening light cast on her electric blonde hair seems to make it glow bright yellow. However, this time it makes her look even more beautiful than it did in Laverre, probably due to the different climate. Seeing her in this light leaves him even more starstruck than he was back in Kalos. "Thank Arceus May isn't here to see this!" he thinks to himself. He recalls back in Laverre when he saw her basked in this light and chickened out on telling her how he felt. Now however, seeing her like this makes him want to finally say something. So, he stands up and turns to her fully.
But before he can say anything, he feels his notebook being pulled from his hand. Spinning around, he sees a grappling hook pulling his book away from him, into the arms of none other than Sarah and Sam. The two of them smirk at them, before turning and running out of Rustboro. Max bellows with rage and charges after them. Bonnie is about to follow when Kenny comes out of the school. "Hey Bonnie," he says. "Where's Max?" "His notebook was stolen by a pair of thieves!" Bonnie told him. "We need to help him get it back." With out another word, Kenny nods and follows her after Max. Dedenne runs on ahead, keeping up with Max. Those two criminals ruined his latest attempt at matchmaking, and he was sure going to make them pay for it. So, he hops onto Max's shoulder, then leaps off of it, striking the pair with Thundershock. They get hit by the attack and hit the ground. Max reaches them and goes to take his book back. But before he can, Sarah kicks his hand away and gets to his feet. "Wow," she says, brushing the dust and soot from her clothes. "That Dedenne packs a punch." Sam agrees as he stands up too. Max can't help but groan and roll his eyes. "I swear to Arceus if you start going after Bonnie's Dedenne as well as my notebooks, I'm going to hit you both with a rock!"
Sarah and Sam start to laugh at this. "Why would we want a simple Dedenne?" Sam asks. "And besides, why would we still chase you for you notebook when we already have one of them. So, just do us a solid and just hand over the rest of them and we'll be on our way." Max can't help but laugh at this. "Well, Team Rocket chased a friend of mine across the world simply because they were after his Pikachu," he says. Before either Sarah or Sam can protest that they aren't Team Rocket, Max continues. "For another, that Dedenne just stole my notebook back from you." Just then, Sarah and Sam notice that the notebook wasn't in Sarah's hand anymore. They look at the road to see Dedenne running back over to Max, carrying his notebook in his hands. Sarah pulls out the grappling hook again and aims it at Dedenne. But before she can fire, Kenny runs out from behind Max and kicks the Grappling hook away. It lands at Bonnie's feet, who proceeds to stomp on it, smashing it to pieces.
Both criminals are infuriated by this, and reach towards their belts for their pokémon. But before they can pull them out, Max, Bonnie and Kenny release 2 pokémon each, Bonnie sending out Braixen to join Dedenne, Max using Grovyle and Gallade, and Kenny with a Marshtomp and a Poliwhirl. The duo of Team Terra one look at the 6 pokémon standing before them and correctly decide that this is a no win situation for them. So, they turn tail and run. "You were lucky this time!" Sarah calls. "But we will have those notebooks from you!" "What she said!" Sam agrees as he runs away as well. The three kids laugh at Sarah and Sam's retreating backs, before returning their pokémon and heading back to Rustboro. As they do, Max comes clean to Kenny about the whole debacle with Team Terra. As they head back, Dedenne lags behind. silently fuming. He could see it in Max's eyes when he caught sight of Bonnie in the sunset that he was going to say something before those two morons ruined it. Now, the sun has set, so the glow of Bonnie's hair is gone. Dedenne sighs, then runs to keep up with his trainer, already thinking of a new way to get them together.
Sorry for how short this one was, I didn't have much of a plan for it, and I felt that I had said enough. I'm also sorry for the Fourthwheelshipping bait, but I still feel that they're too young for me to put them together yet. But I swear to you, that thing in Laverre was not written for this scene, I wrote it for a small joke, then realised earlier today that I could use it again here. It was a happy accident, and not planned. Expect that to happen a few times during this series. But anyway, with that said, see you on Thursday with the next chapter.