Chapter Text
Now with only 3 pokémon each on their teams, Max and Bonnie begin to feel like this is a new beginning for their journey through Kanto. Well, a newer beginning than the one they already had. After spending the night in the Pokémon Centre, they, along with Hilbert and Hilda, leave the place early the next morning, pretty much as soon as they've finished breakfast. As they head out, Hilda instructs Max to send his Pidgeot into the sky to scout the path ahead, just in case there are any Team Terra agents on the prowl. The 4 of them stand around, watching as the bird flies off in the direction of Pewter City. She comes back a few minutes later, and lands on Max's arm. "Was there any Team Terra agent on that path?" he asks her. She shakes her head. "Ok, we're in the clear then," Hilbert sighs. "Thank Arceus." Max gives Pidgeot a few snacks as a reward, then returns her to her ball.
True to Pidgeot's word, there are no Team Terra agents on the path they are travelling on. Relieved by this, the 4 of them carry on their journey. But, that relief was poorly timed. In the bushes along the route, Sarah and Sam lie in wait, ready to spring out and grab Max's bag. "This would be so much easier if we could use machines," Sam complain. "Maybe so," Sarah replies curtly, "but if we use them, we risk drawing attention to us. How would you like it if our glory was snatched from us by other members of Team Terra, simply because we drew too much attention to ourselves?" Sam sighs, but sees where she's coming from. So, the two of them wait patiently for their targets to walk past. They've decided to go for the old faithful booby trap, the concealed net. All they need to do is wait for Max Maple to walk over it, then he'll trigger the trap, get caught, and Sarah and Sam will have his notebooks, and sub-admin titles before the week is done.
Soon enough, the sound of a 12 year old girl excitedly talking reaches their ears. Sarah and Sam grin to each other, then patiently wait for the trap to spring. Sure enough, Maple and Citron round the corner, accompanied by those 2 agents from Interpol. They walk along the path, and are about to step on the trap, when a strong gust of wind blows its concealment away, revealing it to the 4 of them. Max is about to step on it, but Bonnie manages to pull him back in time. The 4 of them start looking around, trying to see who set the trap. "If we stay quiet," Sarah whispers, "maybe they'll think the trap was set by poachers and leave." "Come out you pair of morons!" Max yells. "I know it was you that set this!"
The pair sigh, then stand up. "I'll admit, that was rather unfortunate," says Sam. "But it doesn't change the fact that we will take your notebooks!" Max sighs and interrupts him. "So just hand them over and you'll be on your way?" he finishes. Both of them stare at him. "How did you know I was going to say that?" Sam asks. "Because it's what you say every time you fail to take it." Sarah and Sam glare at him, before taking out their pokémon. "Well that doesn't matter," Sarah snaps. "What's important now is if you don't hand them over, we'll be forced to use force!" Max, Bonnie, Hilbert, and Hilda roll their eyes, then pull out their own pokéballs. Then, they release their pokémon. Sceptile, Delphox, Emboar, and Serperior come out, while Sarah and Sam send out Gourgeist, Mr. Mime, Vileplume, and Dustox. The 2 sides are about to engage in combat, when suddenly that gust of wind appeared.
It kicks up a bunch of leaves and dust, blocking their view of Team Terra. Seizing the opportunity, the group returns their pokémon and makes their escape. While they do that, some pokémon start getting agitated, and make a lot of noise. The wind dies down, and stops obscuring Team Terra's view of them. The two look around, then hear the sounds of the agitated pokémon. Assuming that the noise is coming from their targets, the duo chase after them, eager to take the notebooks. The 4 watch them run off from the safety of some bushes, then use this opportunity to make their escape, for real this time. Once they're far enough away from the duo, they stop running, and continue the journey at walking pace.
As they do, they discuss what happened back with Sarah and Sam. Specifically, the large gusts of wind that aided them, and the agitated animals that drew the two idiots away. "What do you think happened with that?" Hilbert asks. Hilda shrugs. "Maybe a helpful pokémon?" she suggests. "Unlikely," Max replies. "Pokémon have been known to aid people in trouble, but that only happens when it's obvious that the human is in trouble, or the human gave the pokémon something, so it's returning the favour. But if it does happen, that pokémon always reveals itself to the human, either for praise, a gift, or to be captured on rare occasions. The fact that no pokémon has shown up after all of that makes it unlikely to have been a pokémon that aided us." Max is going to continue his explanation, but at that moment, Bonnie trips over a root, because she got distracted by Max's ramblings.
But his ramblings aren't all Bonnie is distracted by. She thinks she saw what caused the wind, but she can't say what it was, because it would make her sound crazy. But, right as the wind had obscured Tea, Terra's view of them, she believes she spotted a glowing blue figure for just a second, before it vanished into thin air. But, judging by the other 3's conversation, they clearly didn't see it. So, bringing it up would make her look insane. So, she decides to keep quiet about it. But, this marks the 3rd time since arriving in Kanto that she's seen these strange glowing blue figures. She doesn't know what they are, or what they want. All she knows is that they seem to be drawn to her. Almost like they're trying to tell her something.
Eventually, the group decides to stop for the night. They set up camp not far off from Pewter City, about a day's walk from it. They would've continued going, but they didn't want to be walking through the night. So, they found a small clearing in the woods not far from the path, and set up camp there. In order to avoid drawing attention to themselves, they don't light a fire, instead having Emboar quickly use its flames to cook their food, while not drawing any attention to themselves. Once they're finished cooking and eating their food, they get ready for bed. As Bonnie pulls out her tent and sets it up, Max rifles through his bag to get his own. But it's not there. He starts to panic, and empty his bag to find his tent, but it's nowhere to be found.
"Uh, guys," he says, "my tent's disappeared." The other 3 look at him quizzically. "Do you think you lost it during the gust of wind?" Hilda asks. "Maybe," Max says. "Now what am I going to do?" "Just share Bonnie's tent," says Hilbert, nonchalantly. Both kids go bright red at the thought, and Max is about to refuse, claiming he'll be fine to sleep outside, when a droplet of rain told his answer for him. So, with both of them blushing madly, they settled in to Bonnie's tent, with Max promising to buy a new one once they get to Pewter. Bonnie nods, then rolls over and falls asleep, sure that she'll be fine as long as she doesn't acknowledge the fact that she's sharing a tent with her crush of 2 years.
Bonnie wakes up in darkness. at first, she thinks she just woke up super early, and goes to roll back over in her sleeping bag. Only to find that she's no longer wrapped in it. She's standing up in pitch darkness. She puts her hand up to her face, and realises that she can't see it. But then she can, as it starts to glow. Only, her hand isn't glowing, a light has appeared in the distance. She begins to walk towards it. After a couple of minutes, she starts to run. As she does, the light gets bigger and bigger. Eventually, she reaches it, and steps through the light, and enters a world on fire. All around her are burning buildings. Bodies litter the streets, covered in various wounds. Some are still alive, but barely, while most of them are dead. A few people have been crushed under rubble, while others have been stabbed, or burned to death. Soldiers dressed in metal armour march through the streets, stabbing every single body they find, making sure to finish the job.
These soldiers approach her, and she instinctively holds her arms up in defence. But they just walk straight through her. She continues looking through the streets, trying to see if she recognises the place. But it's hopeless. Either because of the flames destroying the city, or because she's never heard of it before anyway, she doesn't recognise this place at all. But, considering the way that the soldiers were armed, as well as the clothes on all of the corpses, this no doubt happened in the past. But, she has no idea when. As she wanders, she suddenly spots someone standing there. A blue figure. "Hey!" she calls. "You're the one who helped us earlier!" The figure turns to face her, and Bonnie feels her breath catch in her throat. The figure is a ghost, with several stab wounds on his body, and a charred, burnt face. He stares at her, and opens his mouth, before croaking out the words, "To... know... the... past!" He reaches out to her, the makes a grabbing gesture.
Immediately, the images around Bonnie change. Suddenly, she finds herself standing on a cliff, overlooking the sea. She recognises this cliff as one that's near Pallet Town. As she looks around, she suddenly spots something that makes her heart quicken considerably out of sheer terror. Max is standing at the cliff, face to face with Sarah and Sam. He's beaten badly, and clearly on his last legs. He looks down at the water below his feet, as if contemplating jumping. "Don't you dare!" Sarah shouts. "Not even you are that stupid!" But Max only looks at them, then he turns and jumps.
"MAX!" Bonnie screams, shooting up in her sleeping bag. Max also shoots awake, staring around, wide-eyed and fearful. "Is everything alright?" he asks. "Bonnie what happened?" Bonnie just looks at him, then bursts into tears, before tackling him into a tight hug. Max goes very red in the face, but ignores it, focusing instead on calming his best friend down. "It's alright Bonnie," he says in a soothing voice. "It's ok. It was just a dream. It was just a dream." The two of them remain like that for the next half hour, with Bonnie holding tightly to Max while he comforts her. Eventually, she's cried herself dry, and falls back asleep. Max smiles at this, then lies back down and goes back to sleep himself. He's so tired and still a bit shook from Bonnie waking him up, that he fails to notice that the two of them are practically cuddling each other as he drifts off.