Pokemon: Advanced Quest

May we have a talk

Pokémon Center

Bonnie catches up to Max leaving his Pokémon with Nurse Joy

"Max," Bonnie said

"I'm fine," Max said

"You clearly aren't," Bonnie said as Max breathed out hard at being a bad liar "How about this we go on a walk while we wait for your Pokémon to get healed"

"Fine" Max said

Bonnie led Max north of the City towards Route 24 which had a bridge named the Nugget Bridge known for its gold color

Their walk was mostly in silence as they approached the bridge, letting the fresh air do most of the work of relaxing Max

If there was one thing both Bonnie and Max learned to appreciate when they were traveling with Ash was that being outside was refreshing

Max seemed less down than before so Bonnie took that opportunity to start the conversation "Misty was pretty strong," Bonnie said to break the ice

"Yeah she was," Max agreed

"So what's your rematch plan?" Bonnie asked "Train more, different Pokémon? New strategy?"

"I don't know," Max said honestly as he was just enjoying the view

"Really?" Bonnie said expecting Max to have some sort of plan

"I don't know," Max said deciding to voice his thoughts "I never accounted for her Staryu and Gyarados being that strong not even adding I got lucky with the critical hit on Corsola"

"It wasn't luck, you used Focus Energy for a reason," Bonnie pointed out

"Yeah," Max said not convinced

"Well I have a question," Bonnie said as Max wasn't fully opening up "Why didn't you use Vibrava?"

"I thought Nidoran could handle Corsola," Max said

"But you walked in with a plan on using Vibrava and changed it immediately," Bonnie said "It doesn't make sense"

"I know"

"And Vibrava has more experience if you used Vibrava you could have perhaps had a better time with Gyarados," Bonnie said

"I know" Max repeated

"I mean it's one to thing to adapt and improvise but another to just throw away-"

"I know!" Max sounding agitated

"Don't get mad at me that you can't keep your mind on something!" Bonnie said facing him and as Max looked at her she wasn't mad, well a little as she doesn't like to be yelled at but more of her showing she's not backing down just because he's upset

"...Sorry," Max said calming down "Just don't like being reminded where I made a mistake"

"Okay, different question" Bonnie said thinking it was time to switch the topic "Why haven't you evolved Kirlia? I'm sure it's ready to evolve by now"

"My Kirlia is a male," Max said "Meaning I have the option to evolve him into a Gallade instead of a Gardevoir and we both decided that was the one he wanted to evolve into"

"So.." Bonnie said

"To evolve Kirlia to Gallade you need a Dawn stone and we haven't had any luck finding one or buying one," Max said

"I see," Bonnie said as that reasoning made sense as it's not a matter of want but can't right now

"If you want you can go ahead to the next city don't need to hold you back," Max said as Bonnie already got her Cascade Badge