🌙Moon – Chapter 4; bro it’s LANA TIME

Read from the start

Characters: Pearl, Hau, Lillie, Kukui/Burnett, Hala, Gladion, Lana

AN:

as u can see i’ve given up naming my chapters already

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It was the buzzing of her phone that woke Pearl up. She had thought she had set it to silent the night before, but figured she must’ve forgotten. She lifted her phone slightly to check, and saw it was her parents wishing her a good morning.

Pearl sat up in her bed to properly text her parents good night on their end, but as she shifted her legs, Pearl knocked her bag that had been sitting on her bed to the floor with a loud clunk.

The noise made Pearl jump, and she quickly skittered across the bed and onto the floor to investigate, as she wasn’t quite sure what in the bag made such a loud sound. Sifting through her bag, Pearl found the source of the sound at the very bottom – the shiny rock Pearl had found after her encounter with Nebby on the bridge.

That’s right; Pearl thought. She had meant to ask Zinnia about it – as asking Zinnia was often more reliable than texting her uncle Steven directly.

She collected the fallen contents of her bag and hung it up by the shoulder strap on one of her bedposts. Then, grabbing the rock, Pearl snapped a photo, and after saying goodnight to her parents, Pearl went to text Zinnia.

>>zinnia? are you awake?

>Pearl OF COURSE I’m awake, you think I ever sleep?
>What’s up?

>>i need help identifying a rock
>>i found it after some weird thing saved me from a collapsing bridge

>>IMG_8778.JPG

>Oh that’s a weird looking rock lemme text Stevebro about it

[…]

>Yea so Steven has no idea what the FUCK this thing is
>You know it’s a weird rock when the rock expert has no earthly idea what it is

>>oh, that’s really weird. thanks anyways though!

>No prob, always gives me an excuse to bug Steven ✌

>Have a good day out there btw!

Pearl set down her phone with a sigh. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the stone was important in some manner, but if even Steven couldn’t identify it, who could? 

She sent a quick text about it to Hau before lying back down and scrolling through social media.

Eventually, Pearl’s phone pinged – Hau had responded.

>That’s rlly odd? Maybe you could ask grandpa about it?
>>idk maybe. but my uncle knows like, everything about rocks and couldn’t identify it so

>Well, Hala knows everything about this island, if this thing came from here he probably knows what it’s about

>Unless it was aliens 😱
>>i guess i’ll give it a shot. i’ll come over after i eat lunch! i’m still pretty tired from yesterday

>That makes sense 😮 I was gonna be out training so we probably can’t hang out today
>>that’s alright! i’m pretty socially exhausted rn so idk if i’d be much for conversation o(>< )o

>I get that! I’ll ttyl then!

After that text, Pearl put her phone on her bedside table and cozied up between the covers – she didn’t exactly plan on getting up until noon.

Melba woke Pearl up for lunch, and while she was still a bit sleepy after eating, Pearl headed off on her lonesome to Hau’s house to talk to Hala.

Once she arrived, Pearl knocked on the door, and it took a few moments for Hala to answer – but when he did, he seemed happy to see her.

“Well, this is a surprise! Hello Pearl! I’m sorry to tell you that Hau isn’t home right now.”

Pearl shook her head slightly.

“I know, I wanted to see you – I gotta ask you about something.”

“Well, come right in, be my guest! I’m afraid I only made lunch for myself, though”

“That’s fine! I already ate.”

As she was done speaking, Pearl swiftly moved inside the home and set her bag down on the nearby dinner table. She shuffled through the potions and pokeballs in her bag to find the rock, which she gently picked up and set down on the table.

Hala told Pearl he’d look in a second, as he was finishing up washing dishes. He nodded along as Pearl explained her story to him, making sure to honor Lillie’s request for secrecy and omitting any word about Nebby.

One Hala was finished, he dried off his hands and turned towards Pearl and the dinner table.

“Let’s see what this is about, then…”

Hala’s eyes went wide once he saw the stone.

“My goodness!”

He quickly grabbed up the stone and examined it further.

“And you say it left in a blur of electricity?”

“Mhm.” Pearl replied, looking curious as to Hala’s sudden intrigue.

Hala set down the stone and gave one of his short, hearty laughs.

“It looks like you met my good friend Tapu Koko! What a coincidence!”

“Tapu who? Wait… is this a person for a pokemon we’re talking about?”

Hala pulled out two chairs and sat down, and motioned for Pearl to do the same.

“Tapu Koko is the guardian pokemon of Melemele Island. They happen to be a good friend of mine, as well! They leave those kinds of stones with people they’ve encountered – it’s considered a good luck charm, so you should keep it with you!” Hala explained.

“Ohh, I see! I guess I kind of have Tapu Koko to thank for saving me, then.” Pearl replied.

“I’ll make sure to pass along your thanks for you! Was there anything else you needed from me?”

“Nope, I think I’ll be off now – thanks again!”

Pearl left the house with a wave and went on her way back home, where she relaxed for the rest of the day.

The following week was relatively calm for Pearl, as she was still waiting on the professor to contact her about the next island. She spent her days training her pokemon, as well as hanging out with Hau and Lillie. She also made sure to keep in contact with her parents, who were always interested to know how she was doing.

After the week was over, Pearl received a call from Kukui informing her that he’d gotten his boat repaired and was planning on heading over to Akala to see his wife, and he was wondering if Pearl would like to come along. He told her Hau and Lillie were already going to be coming, and Pearl responded with a resounding yes. 

Pearl woke up early the morning she was to leave, and made sure to pack everything she might need for a projected multi-night stay on a different island, and then some. 

She made her way to the professor’s house early, and ended up catching him and Lillie eating breakfast.

Kukui was surprised to see Pearl arrive so early, but he welcomed her inside anyway. There, the three chatted until Hau arrived. By the time he knocked on the door, Kukui and the others were pretty much already ready to go, so the four of them headed off to Kukui’s car to drive down to the Hau’oli marina.

Pearl was especially talkative during the drive, as she read over a list of attractions on a tourism website for Akala island.

“So this place really is tourist central, huh?” Pearl said to herself while scrolling.

Hau leaned over to look at Pearl’s phone.

“Yea, pretty much. The place definitely caters to people going on vacation – it’s tourist season right now, I hope we won’t run into any trouble with the trials because of it.” he said.

Kukui chimed in as he drove.

“Well, if you do have any trouble, just talk to me and we can sort things out!” he said. “Oh – start packing up, the parking lot is right over there.”

The three in the backseat put their stuff back in their bags and waited as Kukui found a parking spot. Once parked, they grabbed their bags and carried them as they followed Kukui down to the docks – Pearl having the biggest suitcase of the trio.

After navigating the packed dock area, Kukui stopped and pointed to a smaller sized sailboat.

“There she is! Just had to get some routine maintenance in, but we’re ready to go!”

As the group hopped onto the small boat, Pearl fiddled around in her bag for a second, pulling out Azul’s pokeball – she figured he’d enjoy swimming along with the boat. After coming out of his pokeball, Azul stretched and yawned, and looked happy to see Pearl.

Kukui’s boat really was small – there was just enough room for the four of them and all their bags, but not much more. 

In no time at all, the four were off. The wind was favorable that day, so the boat was making good pace. As Azul splashed alongside the sailboat, Pearl and Hau looked into Akala island some more, while Lillie was sitting quietly, for the most part.

Setting her phone down, Pearl looked to Lillie and tried her best to speak over the sound of the wind and waves.

“Hey, Lillie, what were you planning on doing once we get to Akala?”

Lillie perked up a bit upon hearing the question.

“Oh, uhm, I’m not sure… I didn’t have much of an idea in the first place. I guess I’ll probably stay with the professor and Burnett…”

“Burnett? Who’s Burnett?” Pearl asked.

Kukui turned around in his seat with a smile on his face.

“That’s my WIFE!” he said proudly. “She studies alternate dimensions in her lab! It’s cool stuff, I’m sure she’d be delighted to meet you two!”

“Oh, that sounds cool! I guess I’ll have to think up an introduction, then!” Hau responded, putting his arms up behind the back of his head in a relaxed position.

There was more chatting among the four, mostly about what they wanted to do on Akala. Lillie concluded that as much as she wanted to follow Pearl and Hau, it’d be best that she stay behind with Kukui and Burnett.

Pearl made sure to promise Lillie that she’d visit in between trials, because she didn’t want her to feel lonely.

In what felt like no time at all, the four arrived at Akala’s port, which was swarming with people of all kinds. Kukui docked the boat safely, and the gang exited the boat. Pearl made sure to give her legs a good stretch, and as she was stretching, Azul flopped up onto the dock. He seemed a bit tired from the long swim, but also looked accomplished. Pearl recalled him to his pokeball and grabbed her things.

“Burnett’s lab isn’t that far of a walk from here – I’ll lead and you can follow!” Kukui said, waving his arm forwards. 

So, they were off. The walk was short, but it seemed longer from navigating the crowded sidewalks and from the blazing summer heat. Eventually, Kukui approached a building just off the main strip, and Pearl and her friends followed him inside.

The blasting air conditioning was a huge relief to Pearl, as she felt like she was about to melt.

The lobby was quiet aside from whirring of the air conditioning, and the only people there aside from the four were the desk attendant and a woman sitting on a couch staring at her phone. The woman looked up from her phone to see Kukui, and put her phone down and stood up with a smile on her face.

She approached Kukui and gave him a hug and a kiss.

“I was waiting for you! Was the trip here alright?”

Kukui scratched the side of his head and smiled.

“It was alright! These three sure are the talkative bunch, haha.”

The woman looked past Kukui to the three teenagers standing behind him.

“Oh, Lillie! It’s so nice to see you again! Kukui hasn’t been driving you crazy, has he?” she said, patting Lillie on the shoulder.

“Oh, no, not at all. It’s nice to see you again too, Burnett!” Lillie said with a smile.

Burnett turned to Pearl and Hau and put her hands on her hips.

“So, who are you two? It’s always nice to see fresh faces around here!”

Before Pearl could speak, Kukui spoke up over her.

“This is Hau, and this is Pearl! They’re two new trainers going through the island trials together, and Pearl comes all the way from Hoenn!”

“Well, isn’t that neat! Nice to meet you two – I’m Professor Burnett! I also happen to be Kukui’s wife, but I bet he told you that already.” Burnett said as she extended her arm to shake hands with Hau and Pearl. 

“It’s nice to meet you too!” Pearl said, shaking Burnett’s hand. 

With introductions out of the way, Burnett offered to take the three on a tour of her lab, and all three of them agreed. Pearl was interested in Burnett’s work in alternate dimensions, given that she was the emissary of the god of space, and knew of the existence of alternate dimensions already.

As Burnett toured the crew around that lab, she explained the kind of work that she and her team did. To the surprise of Pearl and Hau, Burnett’s team already knew about the existence of alternate dimensions in their universe, though they didn’t know much about them other than the fact that they exist.

What really caught Pearl and Hau’s attention was what Burnett excitedly mentioned next – the lab had actually received a transmission from what they believed to be a distant universe. 

Burnett explained – back in 2010, strange otherworldly holes opened up in the skies of Alola, and specific energy readings spiked. Those events slowly fizzled out, but now, those same readings that spiked were beginning to rise again. But what was really exciting, as Burnett stated, was a transmission received. It was a short audio transmission of someone speaking in an accent not from anywhere in the world, and it was the most exciting proof of a distant universe Burnett had ever seen.

Lillie looked pretty neutral hearing all of this, as opposed to Pearl and Hau’s jaws being pretty much on the floor. When Pearl asked, Lillie said that she’d been living with Kukui and Burnett, so she’d already heard about it. 

The tour soon concluded, and Pearl and Hau sat down on a couch in the lobby to chill for a little bit and figure out where they needed to go next. 

With Kukui’s input, they were able to find out that the first Akala trial captain, Lana, was busy for the next few days, so they couldn’t go forwards with trials until she was free. Hau and Pearl did manage to book times in advance, so they at least had a couple of days to train before taking on Lana’s trial.

As Pearl and Hau got up, Lillie stepped forwards and muttered a bit to catch their attention as they approached the door.

“Huh? Lillie, did you say something?” Pearl turned and asked.

“Oh, uhm… I just wanted to wish you two good luck out there! I mentioned I was going to stay behind here, but you guys have my phone number if you need anything-!” Lillie replied.

“Oh yeah, of course! I was planning on coming back around to visit you every so often, anyways. I promise we’ll keep in touch!”

With a wave and a goodbye from Lillie, Pearl and Hau were off. Their plan for the day was just some simple training, as they’d make their way to Paniola town and Brooklet hill later.

They decided to train on the route just outside of Heahea city, as it seemed to be quite popular among local trainers and tourists alike.

Pearl and Hau battled their way through plenty of wild pokemon and trainers, and were enjoying win after win. Despite the heat, Pearl and Hau felt like they could keep going for hours, fueled by the energy of the battle. 

It was after a period of this that Pearl’s attention was caught by the strangest pokemon she’d ever seen. It seemed like it was a mixed-up mess of all kinds of parts, from it’s talons in front to it’s finned tail. What was stranger though, was the teenage boy sitting down next to the pokemon. Even at some distance away, Pearl still found that he had a striking resemblance to Lillie – almost twin-like, even.

Hau noticed too, and eventually, the trainer and his pokemon caught the two staring. He got up and approached them both with an upset look.

“What the hell do you think you’re looking at?!” he said harshly.

Pearl stepped back a bit and raised her hands in front of her chest in caution, while Hau stood his ground. 

“Woah, hey, sorry! We were just looking at your pokemon, it’s uh, really neat lookin’!” Pearl said. She didn’t get a response, only a muffled ‘hmph’.

“Well, since you approached us… wanna battle? I’m Pearl, by the way!”

“You really wanna battle that thing?” Hau whispered to Pearl, obviously wanting to leave the confrontation. Pearl just shrugged and looked onwards to the young man in front of them.

“…Fine.” he eventually replied. He struck a pose with his hand in front of his face before speaking again.

“I’m Gladion of Team Skull! And I’ll make you regret messing with me!”

“Team skull…! Pearl, are you sure you wanna do this?” Hau muttered, stepping back to provide space for the two trainers.

“Psh, why not? We wiped the floor with the last skull grunts we ran into, and all the training from today has me feelin’ confident!” Pearl replied

“Alright… I’m just getting bad vibes about that weird pokemon…”

Pearl just nodded, and called out Azul, while Gladion sent out a zubat.

Pearl had dealt with zubat before, and Azul was stronger than this particular zubat by a longshot, and it went down quickly.  

Gladion dug his feet into the ground, clearly upset – while Pearl praised Azul for doing a good job.

Gladion called out his next pokemon.

“Give ‘em hell, Type Null!”

Type Null? What a strange name for a pokemon; Pearl thought. Still, she stood her ground. While she had no idea what type the weird pokemon was, she knew that Azul could hit it hard.

Type Null let out a cry Pearl had never heard before, before stepping forwards onto the field. Pearl was unsure what to do, but decided to go for the strategy she’d been using on the trainers she’d fought on the route previously.

“Azul, bubble beam!” Pearl shouted out.

Azul shot the bubbles at Type Null, who staggered back in recoil. Gladion responded with a command to use tackle, which hit Azul rather hard for being a basic normal-type attack. After a couple exchanges of moves, both parties were down to their last leg – but Pearl pulled out her secret weapon: aqua jet.

With that, it was over, and Type Null stumbled as Gladion recalled it to its pokeball with a sneer. 

“Nice one, Pearl!” Hau said, holding up his hand to give her a high-five. Pearl high-fived her friend and then turned to Gladion.

“Hey, thanks! That was a good battle!” she said to him – but Gladion just grumbled. 

“Can I ask you something, actually” Pearl followed up with.

“You better make it quick…” Gladion mumbled.

“Do you know anyone named Lillie, by any chance?”

Gladion stood ajar. His face’s expression turned to that of shock, but it soon drifted back into his usual disgruntled one. He didn’t respond, and just gathered his things and stormed away.

“Well, that guy’s sure a sunny figure…” Hau said, scratching his head.

“For sure, what was his deal?” Pearl replied.

“Should’ve gotten a pic of Type Null to show the professor – maybe he would’ve had an idea of what it was.”

The two friends just shrugged it off, and decided to call it a day and head back to the Pokecenter to heal up and chill for the evening. Pearl meant to make a mental note to ask Lillie if she knew Gladion, but ended up forgetting by the time she got some downtime.

After the long day, Hau and Pearl stayed in one of the rooms in the Pokemon Center overnight.

—

The next morning, Pearl woke up early, with a plan. She made sure to text her parents good morning, and slid down the Pokecenter’s bunk bed’s ladder to wake up Hau. Hau was rather groggy, and shoved his face into the pillow, asking Pearl to give him a couple more minutes before he was ready to wake up.

Pearl sighed, but ultimately honored her friend’s request, and sat idly by while scrolling on her phone.

It did take some time, but Hau eventually sat up with a stretch and a loud yawn. The two friends got ready to leave, and decided they’d make their way up to Paniola town so they’d be close by Brooklet Hill by the time it was their turn to take their trials.

They could’ve opted to take the bus that ran the route connecting Heahea and Paniola, but Hau and Pearl decided it’d be nice to train along the route to get the extra experience in.

Upon finally arriving in town, the two looked around in awe at how different the town looked compared to Heahea.

“Man, it’s like an old Unovan movie come to life!” Hau said. He ran ahead of Pearl a bit and stood in a stance in front of her. He pointed his hands at Pearl, both of which were in a finger-gun position. “C’mon, put ‘em up! We could have an old school draw fight here!”

Pearl laughed.

“Haha, you’re kind of right!” she said, followed by her ruffling in her bag a bit. Pearl pulled out one of her pokeballs and held it up. “You know, we can’t have a draw fight, but we can always have a pokemon battle!”

Hau made a smirk and grabbed one of his pokeballs as well.

“Oh, you’re on!”

It was a quick, casual battle, and though it was close, Pearl came out as the winner. Hau sighed in defeat as he recalled his fainted pokemon, but didn’t have any hard feelings about it. 

The two friends made their way to the Pokemon Center, where they healed up their tired pokemon and discussed their plans for the rest of the day.

Hau was planning on exploring the town, as he had heard it there was a famous local restaurant, and he wanted to try the food there. Pearl wanted to train a bit more, so the two friends said goodbye to each other for the moment as they parted ways.

On her way out of the Pokecenter, Pearl noticed a promotional ad for heal balls, which caused her to think. She only had two pokemon with her, and the upcoming trial was centered around water-type pokemon – which her frontrunner Azul had an unfavorable matchup against. Pearl shrugged to herself and went to the Pokemart section of the center to buy a couple, because while Pearl still had a few regular pokeballs left over, these ones were pink.

With that, Pearl was off on her way to the route connecting Paniola town and Brooklet hill. Some quick searching on the internet revealed that there was a very diverse variety of pokemon living on the route, so it’d likely be her best shot at getting a new team member.

As Pearl navigated the route and battled and chased various wild pokemon along with Poppy, none of them really stood out to her – they just didn’t click. It got frustrating after a while, to a point where Pearl wasn’t really watching where she was stepping through the tall grass. Then it hit her – or rather, Pearl hit it.

Pearl fell to the dirt with an ungraceful thump. She groaned, and picked herself up and dusted herself off. She turned to look to see what she had tripped on, and there sat a rather upset fomantis.

“Sorry!” Pearl said, the pokemon cocking its head at her words. It still seemed upset, and tried to headbutt Pearl’s leg. Pearl thought for a moment, before stepping back and calling Poppy forwards. “Do you want to battle?”

The fomantis jumped back in response, and attempted to hit Poppy with a fury cutter – but it was so slow that Poppy just drifted out of the way. A couple of attacks in, and Pearl started feeling a bit bad for the poor fomantis, who was obviously looking a bit tired. Then Pearl remembered – heal balls heal the caught pokemon to full condition once used. And then her brain made the connection of fomantis being a grass type, and the next trial being water-centric – and suddenly, it all made sense.

Pearl ordered Poppy to back off and rustled around in her bag for a heal ball. Then, with a confident stance, Pearl threw the ball at the fomantis, and it bounced off the bulb on its forehead before encapsulating it.

1… 2… 3… click! Fomantis was caught!

Pearl picked the ball up from the ground and dusted it off. She decided she’d let her new teammate rest a little bit before getting to know them.

She thought of names in her head, and her mind went to the pink color of the pokemon’s skin, and how it reminded her so much of the seas of cherry blossoms in the shoujo anime she watched. 

Cherry sounds like a cute name; Pearl thought – and just like that, it was settled. Pearl’s new companion’s name was Cherry.

Pearl headed back to the Pokemon Center to heal her pokemon, and once she returned to the room she was staying in, she released Cherry from her pokeball to get to know her. Cherry seemed grateful that Pearl had healed her, but was still a bit shy. Pearl then released Poppy and Azul, and the three pokemon made their various noises together, and seemed to get along well. After meeting her other pokemon, Cherry seemed a lot more relaxed around Pearl, and she was glad about that.

Pearl took it easy for the rest of the day, and most of her thoughts were about the trial she’d be going through the next day. She hoped that with Cherry now on her team, she’d be able to emerge victorious from whatever the trial captain threw her way.

—

Pearl’s morning routine was the same the next day – get up, text her parents, brush her teeth, bug Hau. Though this morning, she cut Hau some slack, since his trial time was in the afternoon. Pearl had chosen the earliest possible time slot, and was excited to get moving, even if it was early. 

Pearl left the Pokemon Center and released all 3 of her pokemon to let them walk with her over to Brooklet hill. As Pearl started her trek, she noticed that Cherry was having difficulty keeping up with her stubby little legs. She turned to offer to carry her, but it seemed that Poppy was quicker to offer its help – lifting Cherry off the ground with it’s strings. Cherry seemed thankful, and happily squeaked as Poppy drifted along.

The team managed to squeeze in some training along the way to the trial location, and in no time at all, they reached the trial gates at Brooklet hill. Waiting there for them was a blue-haired girl who looked no older than 13, which was a surprise to Pearl. The girl was fiddling with a fancy-looking fishing rod until she noticed Pearl approach.

“Hi! My name’s Pearl, I’m here for the first Akala island trial. Are you the trial captain Lana by any chance?” Pearl asked.

The girl cocked her head.

“And what if I’m not? What would you do then?”

“Huh… what?” Pearl was a bit confused, which showed itself on her face.

The girl paused for a moment, looking at Pearl. Then, she laughed.

“I’m just messing with you.” she said as she hopped off the rock she was sitting on. She approached Pearl and extended her hand for a handshake, but pulled it back as Pearl tried to shake her hand. “Yeah, I’m Lana. You ready?”

Pearl was still left confused and a bit shocked by Lana’s attitude, but her excitement for the trial overshadowed it.

“Of course I am!”

“Good. Let’s go then.” Lana said as she turned and walked down the path to the trial site.

Pearl didn’t know what she expected Lana to be like, but she was certainly a lot more blunt than Pearl had imagined. Still, she followed her down to the hill, where she was waiting in front of a large body of water.

“Hope you don’t mind getting wet. Here’s the low-down;” Lana said, waiting for Pearl to confirm she was ready for an explanation. Pearl nodded, and Lana turned towards the water. “The waters here are usually pretty calm, so I hope you’ll be able to notice the heavy disturbances on the surface. There’s some angry pokemon there, and I want you to chase them downstream. Good luck!”

With that, Lana hopped down the ledges on the Brooklet Hill trail without a second word. Pearl stood and stared for a moment before shrugging to herself. Perhaps Lana hadn’t woken up yet? It was whatever to Pearl, who was just eager to start.

She called forward Azul and instructed him to swim towards the splashing in the water to scare the pokemon off, and he did just that. It seemed simple to Pearl, too simple, in fact. Azul swam back to Pearl, and her and the team walked downstream to the next big pool. Lana was nowhere to be seen, so Pearl just assumed she was gone all the way to the sea at the end of the trail.

Again, Azul scared off the angry pokemon, and returned to Pearl. She was confused, if anything – not even having to battle the pokemon was odd. She was suspecting Lana’s deadpan attitude might be an act, and that something must be coming. Pearl wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or not, but it almost seemed like it had gotten a lot cloudier since she had first arrived.

For the third time, Pearl sent out Azul to scare the splashing pokemon downstream. The smell of the ocean was stronger than ever, so Pearl assumed she was close to the end of the trail. As she began walking down the trail once more, Pearl noticed that it started to rain. Because of this, she took Cherry from Poppy and held her in her arms, and recalled Poppy back to it’s pokeball so it wouldn’t get wet.

As Pearl got closer to the ocean, the small drizzle escalated into an almost torrential downpour. Pearl was certain something was up, and when she reached Lana, she saw she had a sinister grin on her face.

“Alright! The totem pokemon is just over there! Good luck!” Lana said, waving to Pearl through the rain and pointing towards an area of violent splashing.

Pearl felt her confidence drop a bit. Whatever was in there was big. But she swallowed her fear and moved forwards. Pearl left her bag by the shore, and one by one, Pearl hopped on the trail of rocks leading out to the area of splashing, clutching Cherry to her chest.

Approaching the tumultuous water, Pearl was hesitant. Still, she crouched down, holding Cherry with one arm, and reached out to the splashes. Suddenly, they stopped, and for a moment everything seemed calm.

Then, all of a sudden, a massive pokemon cried out and breached the water. Pearl stumbled back on the rocks as it fell back into the water and soaked Pearl and Cherry. Looking in front of her, a massive school of wishiwashi was swimming with most of its body out of the water. Pearl got up, and stood her ground. She sent Cherry forwards, and shouted her first command.

“Cherry, go at it with a leaf blade!”

But Cherry was too slow, and the wishiwashi school hit her with water gun first. Luckily, it wasn’t very effective, and Cherry shrugged off the hit. 

Cherry slashed at the wishiwashi, and it appeared it was a hard hit, as the school cried out. As a result of the school’s cries, from the depths beneath the rocks, an alomomola emerged and began circling around the wishiwashi.

A 2-on-1 is gonna be tough; Pearl thought, quickly giving Cherry the command to use another leaf blade attack. But just as Cherry’s attack landed, the circling alomomola used what appeared to be heal pulse, negating all the damage Cherry had done.

Pearl knew she had to do something about the alomomola if she wanted any chance at winning against the school, but Cherry’s HP was getting low and Pearl didn’t want to use her turn healing. 

Holding her ground, Pearl commanded Cherry to attack the alomomola instead of the wishiwashi school. Despite the super-effective hit, the alomomola took it well and continued to swim around the wishiwashi.

Attack after attack, the alomomola’s HP was getting low – but before Cherry could land the finishing blow, the alomomola attacked with double slap and knocked Cherry out. 

Pearl clutched her fainted pokemon and sent her back into her pokeball. Pearl was worried – she didn’t have an advantage against the totem pokemon anymore, but the alomomola was almost out, so it was only a matter of time, she thought.

Pearl sent out Poppy, who drifted a little in the wind and rain. With one final shadow ball, the alomomola was knocked out and returned to the depths. Now, all that was left was the giant school of wishiwashi. 

Pearl decided to stick to her usual strategy when using Poppy against non-normal types – which was to keep using minimize to avoid most hits and then hit the opponent with shadow ball. 

While the wishiwashi school hit Poppy pretty hard the first time, after a couple minimizes it couldn’t land a hit on it. Then, it was all up to whittling down it’s health. Slowly but surely, the school’s HP went down, and eventually, after one final shadow ball, the school let out a terrifying cry and dispersed.

Soon, the rain cleared, and the sun shone down. It took a second for Pearl to realize it, but she had won. She flapped her hands excitedly and jumped to hug Poppy, but as she did so, Pearl slipped on the wet rock she was standing on and fell into the water.

She swam to the surface and laughed, and grabbed Poppy’s strings as she swam to the shore.

Waiting for her on the shore was Lana, who was clapping her hands with an impressed smile on her face. Once Pearl made it to shore, Lana spoke.

“Woah, good job! Yaknow, it’s pretty impressive you didn’t run away screaming once my school of wishiwashi breached. What were you expecting to come out of the water?”

“I dunno, Kyogre?” Pearl said, shrugging.

“Kehehe, you know, I caught a Kyogre once!” Lana replied with a snicker.

Pearl tilted her head.
“No you didn’t. I know her, and my mom doesn’t like her.”

“What?” Lana said with a confused look.

Pearl realized she probably should have said that, but the confusion on Lana’s face over her statement had Pearl stifling laughter. 

After a moment of silence, Lana spoke up.

“Anyways… if you’d get out your trainer’s passport, I can stamp it for you showing that you’ve completed the trial.”

Pearl nodded and went over to grab her bag. She sifted around in it for a couple seconds to locate her passport, and once she got it out, she handed it to Lana, who promptly stamped it.

Pearl thanked Lana, and waved goodbye as she started her trek back up the trail.

Pearl returned to her room in the Pokemon Center to find that Hau wasn’t there. Pearl checked her phone, and found that she had missed a text from him saying he’d be out for a bit before the trial. Pearl sighed, and went to change out of her sopping wet clothes. Once in her pajamas, Pearl got cozy in bed and napped for the rest of the day.

I gotta tell Lillie all about this.

Next Chapter