No. 1 Admin of Team Terra

Shinx takes a few days to warm up to Max's team, and the rest of Bonnie's. At first, he was incredibly shy around them, and would always take shelter behind Bonnie's legs, and even Max's on occasion. But soon enough, he grew comfortable around them, and now he plays happily with the rest of them while Max wrote his notes and Bonnie developed strategies for her next battle.

Over the next few days, things are suspiciously quiet. Despite being very close behind them a few days ago, Team Terra have left them well enough alone since then, and Max doesn't like it. Bonnie can tell he's worried about their lack of action, and it's beginning to worry her too. But she tries to reassure him that if Team Terra was going to come after them, it will most likely be Sarah and Sam again, and those two are just a pair of bungling fools. "I know," says Max. "But I can't shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen. It's almost like the Orb is warning me."

As it turns out, Max is almost right on the money. Two weeks after they left Lumiose, the two are walking down a forest trail. Max is writing in his book while they walk. At that moment, Max senses something is wrong. He pulls out Treecko's and Mightyena's pokéballs and readies them. Bonnie notices his apprehension and does the same with Dedenne and Fennekin. Suddenly a whole horde of Team Terra agents burst from the foliage and send pokémon after pokémon out after them. Max and Bonnie send out their full teams and begin trying to fend them off while they run away. All they have to do is get to a centre and they'll be fine.

But suddenly, they get surrounded on all sides by so many agents. With no other choice, the pair focus on defeating as many agents as they can. As the chaos unfolds, Max sees C charging towards him. He panics and quickly throws out his fist, smacking it across his face. C grows furious and tries to tackle the boy to the ground, but Max dodges out of the way, and Pyroar takes the opportunity to leap on top of him and pin him to the ground, before resuming the battle she's in with a Houndoom.

Max watches this happen, then realises that he no longer has his notebook in his hands. He must've dropped it during the scuffle with C. He begins to search the grounds for it, when he hears a voice shout out, "Maple and Citron! Return your pokémon to their balls or I'll rip this to pieces!" Max looks at the source of the voice, and his stomach drops. Sarah is holding his notebook up, open with one hand on either side of the book, ready to rip it apart. Max glares at her with utmost hatred but returns all of his pokémon. Bonnie looks at him, then does the same. C gets up from where he was pinned. He brushes himself off, straightens his glasses, then turns and grins evilly. "Well now," he says, walking up to Sarah and taking the book from her hands. "This is veery interesting. Thank you C-05."

Max glares at them all. "If you want the Jade Orb," he says, "you're going to have to take it from me." C laughs at this. "Oh, don't worry that's not what we're here for," he tells them. "We're here to bring you somewhere. Our Admin is pretty keen to meet you two, since you've been able to evade our agents for 5 months so far. So, we're here to escort you to her." Max rolls his eyes. "And if we say no?" he asks. C rolls his eyes and opens the notebook to a random page. He grabs it and begins to slowly tear it out. "Get the picture?" he asks them. Max nods, defeated. Bonnie just sighs and does the same. She doesn't want Max to lose his work.

The Team Terra agents move in a cluster, with Max and Bonnie in the middle of them, to prevent them from running off. But just to be sure they don't, C keeps Max's notebook. While they walk, he peruses through it. As he does so, his eyes widen with amazement. "Did you notice all of this stuff yourself?" he asks Max. Max says nothing, instead choosing to scowl at the ground. Sam, who, along with Sarah, is standing behind Max and Bonnie, knocks him rather hard in his back. "Answer me boy," says C. "Did you notice all of this stuff yourself?" Max sighs, then nods his head. C's jaw drops at this, and he continues to read all of Max's notes. "You managed to write all of this in 5 months!?" he asks. Max nods again. C, Sarah, and Sam are all flabbergasted by this. "Well, I must say it's very impressive," he tells him. "It would take some of our top researchers maybe 3 years to get this much information. You have quite the mind." Max rolls his eyes. "Like I'm going to take a compliment from a criminal" he mutters.

C hits him over the head with the notebook at that. "You let the media twist your perception too much, boy," he tells him. "Yes, we have a fair few bad Applins in our midst, what group doesn't? But our goal is to preserve our world, and to save it from the evils of human greed. We are nothing like the likes of Team Rocket, Magma, Aqua, or Flare, those groups you've had a hand in bringing about their downfall, might I add." Max and Bonnie wheel around, wondering how he knew that. C laughs at their reactions. "Of course I knew that," he says. "Some of our Admins are ex members of those crews. I'm sure they'd all love to speak with you both. I believe Homura has it out for you in particular Maple." Max swallows nervously at that, and he begins to hope that Homura isn't the one they're about to meet.

Eventually, Team Terra leads them to a decently sized cave. Looking at it, Max can tell that it isn't a natural one. "You made this yourself, didn't you?" he asks. C laughs at this. "Once again, your observation skills are very impressive Maple," he says. "You would make a very dangerous enemy indeed when you get older." Max scowls at that comment but says nothing. "Yes, you are correct," C continues. "This is a man-made structure. We created it ourselves as a hiding place. We have these all over the world." C realises what he just said and slapped his hands over his mouth. Max and Bonnie smirk at each other, making mental notes to call the police about this as soon as they can.

They're led into the cave, where they see a bunch of people and pokémon milling about. There are a few adjoining rooms with labs in them, and a bunch of Team Terra scientists working away on various machines. As they walk through this cave, every nerve in Max's body screams at him to leave, and he's pretty sure that the Jade Orb is doing that too.

Eventually, they reach the back of the cave, and they come to a large iron door. C approaches it and pulls out a keycard. He swipes it on a keypad, and the door opens vertically. Once it stops, everyone moves into the room. It seems to be some sort of control room. There are monitors and buttons and keyboards all over a massive computer shaped in a semicircle. In the middle of this semicircle is a swivelling chair. And on that chair sits a woman. This woman is rather short, with blue hair tied in weird ringlets on both sides, striking blue eyes, and blue lipstick. To be honest, Max is almost surprised her uniform isn't blue as well.

But something that really surprises him is Bonnie's reaction upon seeing this woman. She freezes in place, and even begins to shake with fear a little bit. Her pokémon notice and begin to shake in their balls to try to comfort her. The woman also notices her reaction and smiles evilly. "Well now, it seems you remember me Citron," she says. "That's good. Because I remember you very well too." She looks at Max and notices the confusion on his face. She raises an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Oh, you didn't tell him about me?" she asks. "How disappointing. I had hoped I left more of a lasting impression on you, but it's clear that I didn't."

She turns back to Max again. "I am Admin Momiji. Admin Number 1 of Team Terra. Although Bonnie will perhaps know me better by my real name, Mable." Bonnie's fear clearly went up at that. "I was a former Admin of Team Flare, but upon our collapse, I was recruited by the Boss of Team Terra to be one of their Admins." Max isn't sure what Team Flare had done in Kalos, but whatever it was caused Bonnie to freeze in terror at the sight of Momiji. "What do you want with us?" he asked, hoping to get this over with quickly so he can get Bonnie out of here. Momiji chuckled. "I want to talk to the two children who managed to evade us for 5 months," she replies. "I also want to have a look at this book that C here told me about."

C steps forward at this and hands the book over. Max tries to take it from them, but Momiji pulls out a small gun and points it at the book, which causes Max to back down. Upon seeing this weapon, Bonnie begins to hyperventilate. Max grows desperate to end this meeting, before it becomes too much for Bonnie. He can't stand seeing her like this. But Momiji slowly goes through his notebook, reading every word he wrote over the 5 months he's been in Kalos. Like C, her eyes widen with surprise. "My Arceus," she says once she's finished. "You really do have an incredible gift, Maple. This makes this meeting all the more important." She leans forward in her chair as she says this next bit. "You see, we want you two to join Team Terra."

Max's jaw drops to the floor. It takes everything in him not to laugh in her face. "You must be joking," he says. "Like Distortion Realm we'll join a criminal organisation!" Momiji raises an eyebrow. "You're mistaken Maple," she tells him. "We aren't a criminal organisation. Our goals is to better the world for both humans and pokémon, and you're gift and you and Citron's skills will be invaluable to our cause." "This sounds like Team Flare" says Bonnie quietly. This is the first time she has spoken since entering the room.

Momiji looks at Bonnie and chuckles a little bit. "I suppose it would to an outsider," she says. "But I can assure you, our plans are very different to Lysandre's. In our plans, not one person or pokémon will be harmed." Max scoffs at this. "Alright then," he says, "What are your plans?" Momiji rolls her eyes. "I obviously can't tell you until you join our side," she exclaims. "So how about it? You get to find our plans and make a real difference for the world, and we get Citron's skills and your mind, it's a win-win all around." Max can't help but laugh at this. "Oh yeah," he says, his voice positively dripping with sarcasm, "of course I want to join a team full of thieves, arsonists, terrorist, and other criminals. Not to mention the sight of you causes this much fear in my friend. So thanks, but I'm afraid we're going to have to say no!"

Then, he whips out some repels and goes to slam them into the floor, creating a smoke bomb. But before he can, C runs in and grabs his arm. "I'm not going to let you pull that trick again!" he says, before going for Max's bag. But before he can, Max swings his bag off of his back and flings it at Bonnie, who despite her fear is able to catch it. "Run!" Max yells as he struggles to free himself from C. "I'll catch up with you!" But Bonnie doesn't move. Her feet are rooted to the spot. The shock of seeing Mable again caused her to become paralysed with fear. To make matters worse, Momiji steps forward and puts her gun to his head. "Hand me the Jade Orb Citron," she says. "Or I'll have to waste such a brilliant mind."

This becomes too much for Bonnie. As she watches Momiji press the gun into Max's head, her head begins to throb painfully. The more stress she feels about it all, the worse it gets. She falls to her knees and clutches her skull. Sam takes the opportunity to try and take the bag from her, but before he can, Bonnie's shrieks with pain. As she does, a powerful blast bursts out of her, throwing Team Terra agents in every direction. Max feels the blast fly passed him, but it doesn't throw him back like the others. Once the blast stops, Bonnie falls to the floor.

Max uses this to squirm out of Momiji's grip and he runs over to Bonnie. She's still conscious but looks quite drained. "Are you alright?" he asks her, slinging one of her arms around his shoulder and picking up his bag. Bonnie nods. "Yes, I am," she says, but Max notices she's panting. "I'm just a bit tired." "Was that Aura?" Max asks. Bonnie shrugs lamely. "Probably" she replies. Max helps her out of the room, when they hear Momiji shout, "Stop them you idiots!" Suddenly, Team Terra goons begin to swarm them. Max pulls out Treecko and Pyroar, then has Pyroar charge ahead and clear a path, while Treecko remains close and keeps the agents back.

After a few minutes of this, Max realises that he needs to go faster. So, he looks at Bonnie and asks, "Is it ok if I carry you?" Bonnie nods her head, her cheeks going a bit pink. Max, ignoring his own reddening cheeks, picks her up bridal style and sprints out of the cave as fast as he can. Treecko runs by his side, using vine whip on anyone who gets too close. Pyroar remains ahead, charging at any agent or pokémon that stand in her way. Eventually, they make it out of the cave. Without stopping, Max pulls out his nav and searches for the nearest Pokémon Centre. Once he finds it, he puts on an extra burst of speed, and sprints all the way there.

Once he arrives, he puts Bonnie down and the two go inside, both collapsing onto a couch once they do. After a few minutes of resting up, Max turns to Bonnie again. "I'm going to go and call the police," he tells her. "Are you alright to be on your own for a bit?" Bonnie nods, but Max can tell she's still pretty shaken and tired from what happened. So, Max steps outside and dials up Interpol. Once the call goes through, Max wastes no time in launching into what happened. He told them about the cave, and how C said that there were caves like that dotted all over the world.

Once he's finished and has hung up, he returns to Bonnie, who looks like she's ready to fall asleep. He sits down next to her and considers texting Clemont about what had happened. But then, he decides against it. He goes to stand up and book a room, but before he can, he feels Bonnie's arm around him. "Stay," she says, her voice still a bit shaky. "Please?" Max nods and stops trying to move. Bonnie rests her head on his shoulder and falls asleep. Max, not wanting to jostle Bonnie and wake her up, gets the attention of the nurse and requests a room. Once he's given the key, he picks Bonnie up and puts her on his back, careful not to wake her up, then carries her up to the room. He leaves her on the bed, then has his and her pokémon healed by the nurse. Once that's done, he heads back into the room and collapses into bed, too tired to notice just how close his head is to hers.