Marvellous Mechanics
After a surprisingly difficult night's sleep, Max is woken up by someone shaking his tent rather violently and calling his name. At first he thinks it's Bonnie and sits up to tell her to shut up, but then he realises that it's Iris. He opens his tent and squints in the sunlight as his eyes adjust to the light. Iris is standing over him, waiting for him to come out. "It's almost 11 you know?" she stated. "How long are you planning on sleeping?" Max groans as he checks his watch and realises that she's right. He opens his tent the rest of the way and steps out.
Outside, Bonnie and Georgia are working together to make breakfast, while their pokémon play around in the grass. "I think your zipper is broken," Iris tells him as he walks over to the other two. "I tried to open it to get you up but it was stuck fast." Max chuckles at that. "Nope," he says, "I did that myself. I fiddled with the zipper so that it's impossible to open from the outside. Someone tried to break into it a few weeks ago." Iris laughs as they sit with the other two. "May was right," she tells him. "You are quite clever." Bonnie looks like she's about to go on about the other tricks he's pulled, but he shit her up with a look. He didn't feel like listening to her singing his praises this morning.
Once they finished eating and had everything tidied up, Iris and Georgia got down to business as to why they had shown up at their campsite. "First off," says Georgia, smiling at the two of them, "we'd like to thank you for that little surprise at the end of Iris's." Max smiles bashfully at that. "It was nothing" he replies. "Secondly," Iris continues, "we figured that since we're all travelling to Cyllage, why not just go together." Bonnie agrees to this immediately, with Max nodding along with her. "Excellent," says Iris happily, clapping her hands together and standing up. "Now, what say we get everything in order and head off. It shouldn't take us more than 90 minutes." The other three agree and Iris and Georgia help the two pack away their camp. Once they have everything in order, Max thanks the Butterfree for its help, then lets it go free. Then, they set off for Cyllage.
Iris is correct in her assumption of a 90 minute walk to Cyllage. It definitely would have been longer, but Bonnie threatened to put something on Max's head to block his peripheral vision if he stopped to write about every pokémon they pass. Max puts his notebook into his bag and doesn't take it out again until they finally arrive at Cyllage. Bonnie would be lying to herself if she says that she doesn't feel a little annoyed that it took them so long to get there. However, she knows that the documentation of pokémon is Max's big dream, and she doesn't want to spoil it by complaining. So, she keeps those thoughts to herself. Once they enter Cyllage City, Bonnie immediately makes a beeline for the gym, with Max trailing behind her. Iris and Georgia laugh before running after them.
Bonnie runs up to the door as fast as she can, eager to begin her battle. But her hopes of finally earning her second badge at this time are quickly dashed when she sees the notice on the door. "Gym Closed while Gym Leader Grant is out. He should be back by 5:00." Bonnie grabs Max's arm and reads the time on his watch. 3:30. She swears at that and drops his hand. "You could've asked," Max points out, an annoyed look on his face as he shakes the hand that Bonnie grabbed rather roughly. "Sorry," she says, "I was impatient." Max rolls his eyes and let's out an amused laugh as Iris and Georgia catch up to them. "Oh well," says Georgia, "you can come back and battle him later. Look, me and Iris have to go and check back into our hotel before they throw our stuff out. We'll see you around." Max and Bonnie wave goodbye to the two girls, then look around the streets for ways to kill time. Eventually, they just decide to walk around and find something to do. They decide to go back to the entrance and have a look at all of the shops and buildings until 5. With that settled, they return to the entrance.
As it turns out, Max didn't have much interest in most of the shops that they see as they stroll through the city. Most of them are clothes shops, which Bonnie is quite happy to browse through. Max however, stays outside, as he has many not so fond memories of spending hours waiting around while May looked at every line of fabric of every single item of clothing before she made her choice. Luckily for him, Bonnie doesn't take as long as his sister normally does. However, he does find a few shops that catch his eye. Every now and then, the two come across shops that sell things related to pokémon. Specifically, Max is fascinated by the mega stones. "The Mega evolution phenomenon has only recently been discovered in Hoenn," he explains to Bonnie. "I never knew this many pokémon could Mega evolve." Bonnie nods to Max's excitement. "Mega Evolution has shown up in a lot more pokémon since I travelled here with Ash," she says. "Now I'm pretty sure there are more pokémon who can Mega Evolve than can't."
Eventually, they come across a shop that's different from the others. This one seems to be a mechanic, or something that works with machines. As they approach, Max notices that there seems to be some sort of commotion going on inside. Upon closer inspection, he realises that there are two people inside the building who are clearly trying to rob the place. He points this out to Bonnie, who squints at the window before realising that he's right. They run over to the door just as the robbers burst out of it. A young woman follows after them, yelling herself hoarse at them to return what they stole. She looks about 16 years old. She has a strong build, long blonde hair which is tied into a bun, amber eyes, and slightly tanned skin. She's wearing a yellow t-shirt, white dungarees, and a blue hat with goggles attached to them. Without thinking, Max and Bonnie run forward and stand in the robbers' way. "Call the police!" Max tells her. "We'll keep them busy." The proprietor nods and runs back inside.
The two robbers laugh at the sight of two kids coming to stop them. "Alright," says the first guy, "I suppose we can indulge you in a battle." His partner laughs in agreement. "Just know this," he tells them as he and his partner pull out their pokéballs, "we aren't sticking around if you do manage to beat us." Then, they throw out their pokémon. Two Linoone come out of the balls, itching for a fight. Max and Bonnie send out their Kirlia in response.
Of course the two knew full well that the robbers weren't going to stick around and wait to be arrested if they are beaten. So, they came up with a strategy to stall them for as long as they can. They only used attacks that did as little damage as possible, and focused more on healing and defending each other. It took the robbers roughly 5 minutes to realise that the kids are only stalling, but by then the tell-tale signs of the police can be heard in the street. The two return their Linoone and try to flee, but Officer Jenny rounds the corner at that moment and tackles the two to the ground before they can even turn their backs. As she hauls them into the back of her car, the proprietor leaves her shop to watch as the thieves are apprehended and to receive the stuff they stole.
Once the two thieves are gone, she turns to Max and Bonnie. "I don't know ow how to thank you both!" she exclaims. "I know, why don't you take a look in my shop. If you see something that catches your eye, take it, free of charge." She laughs at her own joke, then leads the way into her shop. "My name is Megan by the way" she adds as they go through the door. Max and Bonnie introduce themselves to her. Just as Max thought, the shop is full of gizmos and gadgets of varying shapes and sizes. The stock ranges from car motors, hoover, and dishwashers to electric toothbrushes, navigation devices and hairdryers. Anything electrical, you can bet it's there. As the two have a look around, Max notices a door with an "Off limits" Sign on it. "What's in here?" he asks. Megan's cheeks go slightly pink. "Oh those are just works in progress," she explains. "But I'm having difficulty getting them to work." "Can we see them?" Bonnie asks. Megan looks like she wants to reject them, but then decides to allow them in.
Inside the room is a whole load of unfinished contraptions. Most of them are still in their development stages, while a few look fully finished, except for the fact that there doesn't seem to be any way to power them. "I take great inspiration from your brother Bonnie," Megan explains. "I've been trying to make new devices that'll make people's lives easier. The only problem is I've been unable to find a suitable power source that can last as long as I desire." At this, Bonnie has a look at some of the devices. "Have you tried using the power of electric pokémon?" she asks. Megan nods. "Of course," she replies. "It generates the right amount of power required. However, I can't figure out how to harness it."
Max takes a look at the machines, then asks, "Have you tried using an antenna?" Megan stops, and thinks about Max's question. Then, she gets an idea. "No I haven't," she says, running over to her workbench and scribbling something on a notebook. "But, if I get an electric pokémon to simply strike a small antenna with its power, I can send the current into a loop that keeps the energy stored inside it. Then all you'd need to do is attach this antenna to any device and you have a perfect battery!" And with that, she's off, writing down any ideas that come to her head as to how this could be accomplished.
Max smiles at this tirade he set off. He checks his watch and sees that it's 4:50. He lets Bonnie k ow this, and she immediately heads to the door of the shop. Max calls out a hasty goodbye to Megan, not that she heard him since she's so focused on her new idea, then follows after Bonnie. Both of them are really eager for this match, and now it'll happen at last.