🌙Moon – Chapter 6; colress shows up also mallow time

Read from the start

Characters: Pearl, Hau, Lillie, Kukui, Mallow, Lana, Kiawe, Colress, Lune

AN:

i wrote this during an internet outage which only goes to prove i CAN be productive if i don’t have access to secondlife. anyways.

this is the certified Crongiest chapter yet i think and i DO NOT care because i do what i want.

-looks at colress, lune, and n- love loses <3

---

The next day, when Pearl arrived at Burnet’s lab, she was quick to spot Lillie swinging her legs on a nearby bench in the lobby, waiting. Pearl called out to her, and Lillie suddenly perked up.

“Pearl!” Lillie exclaimed with a smile as she got up from where she was seated. She ran over to Pearl with a determined look.

“Kukui said it was alright for me to join you! I’m really excited.”

“Nice!! Lemme pull up the directions on my phone first…” Pearl replied.

Lillie hovered over Pearl as she navigated the Island Trial website, finding the location information she needed.

“Lush Jungle, just off of Route 5…” Pearl muttered to herself, tapping to add the location to a pin on her phone’s map.

“Oh! I did some research beforehand and I think there’s a motel near there… which should be nicer than a Pokemon Center room, I’d think.” Lillie said, pointing to the route on Pearl’s screen.

“Oh neat! It’ll be neat to actually stay at one of those, I like the feel they’ve got to ‘em.” Pearl said as she locked her phone and stretched.

“Well, you think we should head? I can tell you about the fire-type trial while we walk!”

Lillie nodded.

“Sounds good!”

So, Lillie and Pearl were off. It would seem Pearl’s storytelling was strong, as Lillie seemed invested in her tale.

“There was a hiker?!” she asked, both astonished and confused.

“Yea, his name was David! The whole thing was pretty fun!” Pearl replied.

Suddenly, Pearl stopped, as she could feel her phone buzz in her pocket. 

>Hey, this is Pearl, right? It’s Kiawe.

>>yep! you’ve got the right number :3

>Nice! I was just texting to ask what sort of timeline you’d have on getting to Lush Jungle?

>>i’m just leaving now so by tomorrow hopefully!

>Great! I’ll let Mallow know. Be safe 👍

“Who was that?” Lillie asked, leaning over Pearl’s shoulder.

“That was the trial captain, Kiawe! Just letting him know we’re on our way.”

“Oh, I see!” Lillie said with a nod, before looking around.

“Speaking of which… I think we’re here?”

“What do you mean?”

“At the bus stop, I mean.”

Pearl made a blank expression for a bit.

“I… thought we were gonna be walking?” she asked.

“Huh? But it’s a long walk – are you sure? I don’t have many supplies…” Lillie said, looking towards the ground.

Putting her hand on her shoulder, Pearl smiled at Lillie.

“Hey, it’s ok! I’ll be alright. And if you don’t wanna walk, you can take the bus!”

Lillie mumbled to herself a bit.

“Well, if you’re really sure… I guess I will. But could we call? I just want to… make sure you’re safe.”

“That’s totally cool by me! I’ll wait until the bus comes here to start walking.”

So, Pearl waited by Lillie’s side. As they waited, the sunny sky became overcast, but it didn’t quite rain. They talked about the more mundane things in life, like their favorite manga they’d been reading.

Finally, the bus arrived, and Pearl waved Lillie goodbye for the moment. About 5 minutes after the bus left, Pearl received a call from Lillie. Pearl plugged her microphone earbuds into her phone and put her phone in her bag, let out her pokemon, and started her trek.

The route was teeming with both wildlife and trainers, and Pearl confidently battled both. Lillie was a bit like a live commentator to all of Pearl’s battles, because while she couldn’t see them, the sounds of the battles were enough to get her excited.

At around the midway point of the route, Pearl found an odd-looking pure-white trailer parked on the side of the trail. But what was stranger, was a man standing outside of it is an almost ridiculously heavy overcoat… with a familiar haircut.

“Lillie… oh my gosh.” Pearl whispered into her mic.

“What is it, Pearl? Are you in danger?”

“No… okay, okay.” Pearl said, backtracking. “Have I ever told you about this idol I really like? Her name is Lune.”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve heard of her, either… I kind of live under a rock.”

“That’s ok! But what’s NOT ok is how I’m like 99% sure her husband is standing ahead of me and I don’t know if I should ignore him or…?”

“How can you tell it’s him?”

“He has the strangest haircut and I’ve seen him in a few of her personal posts and videos…”

“Ohh, I see. Maybe approach him? I’m sure he gets talked to by fans all the time.”

“Alright… I’ll call you back!”

Pearl clicked her microphone to end the call, and slowly approached the man.

Despite having a family consisting of multiple champions and literal gods, Pearl had no idea how to talk to someone connected to one of her favorite musical artists.

As she came closer behind him, it would appear he was talking on the phone with someone via a hidden microphone in his glove – and his heavy outer layer looked like some kind of hefty lab coat.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be alright! Says the one who insists on going out in storms and having to get her ass dragged in by me.” … “If you and N show up here I’m personally divorcing both of you.” … “Right… well, I love the both of you too. I’ll be back before it gets too late, promise.”

The name he mentioned in the call only confirmed to Pearl that he was exactly who she thought he was.

Nervously, she spoke from behind him.

“You’re… Colress, right?”

Colress jumped and quickly turned around, and his face looked surprised and confused. Certainly, he wasn’t exactly expecting a teenage girl who was a fan of his wife’s work to find him on a hiking trail.

“Ye… yesssssssss?” he replied, confused.

Pearl could hear a muffled woman’s voice through the glove, though she couldn’t quite make it out – though she could only assume it was Lune herself.

Pearl was having a hard time not losing her cool and gushing to him, but she managed to collect herself so she didn’t go on a wild fangirling tangent.

The two stared at each other in silence, before Pearl spoke up.

“Uh… sorry! I’m just… a really big fan of Lune’s work and I didn’t think I’d see someone like YOU out here, uhm…” Pearl’s words trailed off, almost uncharacteristically so.

It took a while for Colress to respond.

“Oh! To be honest, I didn’t really expect to see a fan out here, either, haha!” he said, pausing. “Do you, uh, want a picture, or something?”

Pearl’s eyes grew sparkly and she nodded quickly.

“Yes!! That’d be super cool!!”

She got her phone out and opened her camera, and moved next to Colress. He had a bit of an awkward smile on, but Pearl didn’t mind. She put up a peace sign and clicked a selfie of the two of them.

Pearl moved away and did a little dance while looking at the picture she’d just taken in excitement.

“Thank you so much!! My friend Hau is gonna LOSE IT when he sees this!!” she said with a big smile.

“Glad to hear!” Colress said, adjusting his glasses.

Lune’s laughter could be heard from his glove, to which he responded;

“…I forgot to hang up. Love you.”

Pearl did her best to hold back laughter as ended the call with an annoyed expression. Soon enough, Colress’s attention turned to that of Pearl’s pokemon  – specifically Azul.

Pointing towards the brionne, Colress spoke with a tone of curiosity.

“That pokemon… that’s a brionne, right? They’re quite rare in the wild.”

“Uh… yea! His name’s Azul, he’s my baby!” Pearl said, picking up Azul from under the flippers and holding him.

“Interesting! Say, would you mind if I ran some personal tests in the Aether trailer over there?” he paused. “Sorry if that was too forward. I’ve been gathering data on the pokemon around here, and while he’s clearly domesticated, anything would be useful towards my research!”

Pearl admittedly looked a bit weirded out.

“Uh… sure? As long as you don’t poke him and he doesn’t leave my sight.”

“Of course! He’s your pokemon, after all. Here, follow me,” Colress motioned as he opened the door to the trailer. 

Pearl, still carrying Azul, followed.

The inside of the trailer was a very sleek and modern medical office, complete with an exam table for pokemon.

“This trailer was set up by the Aether Foundation as a checkpoint for their scientists, but I’ve since gained their permission to use it! Even though I don’t entirely… agree with them.” Colress said, tapping his hand on the exam table, where Pearl set Azul down.

“Never heard of ‘em!” Pearl replied as she watched Colress take off his gloves and replace them with less heavy-duty lab gloves.

“N says they give him bad vibes, and I sorta agree, but it’s better than dumping all on my equipment in the hotel!” Colress replied. He dug around in some drawers before pulling out lab equipment and setting it next to Azul.

Through the exam, Colress did his best to explain everything he was doing as to not worry Pearl, and to his surprise, Pearl understood a fair bit of it. 

Pearl did mention she was familiar with marine biology, and the two had a lengthy conversation about it as Colress conducted his test.

After about half an hour, Colress finished his tests and printed out a few sheets of paper and handed them to Pearl.

“And these are in-depth reports of Azul’s battle statistics and potential! Consider it an extra thank-you!” he said, pushing up his glasses.

“Wow… thank you!” Pearl replied, flipping through the papers. “So I’m good to go?”

“Yeah! Just be safe out there – there’s a pretty bad storm coming.”

“I will! It’s nothing I can’t handle!” Pearl said with a determined look. 

While Colress did look a little concerned, he still waved goodbye to her and thanked her once again for the assistance.

The air was damp when Pearl left the Aether trailer, so she took out her phone to call Lillie again and went on her way as fast as she could.

“Where WERE you?” was the first thing Lillie said upon picking up.

“It’s a long story…” Pearl replied.

She proceeded to tell Lillie what happened, and Lillie said she was glad it went so well. Lillie had already made it to the motel and gotten a room for the two, where she was waiting while playing with Nebby. Pearl promised she’d make it there as soon as she could.

Pearl arrived at the motel just before it started to rain – the wind had grown stronger and the sky had gone dark. 

When Lillie opened the room’s door in response to her knock, her eyes lit up and she asked if it was okay if she gave Pearl a hug – which Pearl responded with by giving Lillie a big hug herself.

The room was a standard motel room – there were two beds for humans, and one pokemon bed. There was a TV standing opposite from the beds, with a microwave by its side. The entire look of the room was very dated but… cozy. 

Pearl and Lillie changed into their pajamas and called it a night early.

“This is kind of like a sleepover!” Pearl said enthusiastically.

“Huh?” Lillie replied in confusion.

“Like… I’ve never been on one, but this feels like one, yaknow?”

“I mean… neither have I, but I guess it does…?”

“I think they got some popcorn with the microwave! We can make some and watch whatever’s on TV!”

“Oh, sure…!”

Lillie clicked on the TV and cruised the channels while Pearl put the popcorn bag in the microwave. The rain outside began to fall harder, and the aggressive wind and rain pounding against the building made itself heard.

“Ooh, stop here!” Pearl said to Lillie as she skipped onto the travel channel, which was currently showing a show about ghost hunting.

“Are you sure? It might be kinda creepy…”

“Nah, it’s all fake effects and actor pokemon! My aunt does this stuff for real and she likes to make fun of how much these guys freak out.”

“Oh, that sounds cool! You’ll have to tell me about it while we watch.”

Pearl sat next to Lillie with the bag of popcorn as the two of them watched the ghost hunting show. Lillie ended up having to close her eyes at some points, while Pearl reassured her that the ghost pokemon were just actors. 

Pearl eventually fell asleep by Lillie’s side, to the sound of the wind and rain.

—

The sun shone through the closed curtains, and slowly but surely, Pearl and Lillie woke up. Pearl’s pokemon, along with Nebby, had taken up the other empty bed, and were piled over each other in a cuddle puddle. Pearl thought it was adorable and snapped a picture before getting ready for the day.

Lillie was still groggy by the time Pearl had gotten dressed and ready to go, but said she was fine with staying inside.

Pearl called her pokemon to come along with her, and headed out the door into the sun – but not before texting Kiawe to let him know that she was ready.

The whole world smelled fresh, and though it was a bit muddy, Pearl didn’t mind. She eventually made it to the Lush Jungle, where a green-haired girl around Pearl’s age was leaning on the trial gates, on her phone.

Pearl called out and waved to her, assuming she was somehow related to the trial. The girl waved back and put her phone away, walking towards Pearl. 

“Heya! You must be Pearl, right? Kiawe described you pretty well and the bow is a bit of a giveaway.” she said.

“Haha, yep, that’s me! Are you Mallow?”

“Bingo! That would be me!” Mallow replied. “It’s gonna be interesting with last night’s storm, rain in that amount definitely makes the jungle more active!”

Pearl nodded along, and eventually, Mallow waved at her to follow past the trial gates.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Of course!” Pearl nodded, following Mallow into the jungle.

The sights and smells were almost overwhelming, especially after such a torrential downpour – just as Mallow had said. Light streamed through the thick foliage, and caused the dew on plants to glisten in its light.

Trailing behind Pearl was Poppy, as she gripped one of it’s strings. She figured that even though it wasn’t Poppy’s primary type, Poppy was still part flying-type, which would make it useful against grass types. 

Eventually, Mallow and Pearl came upon a clearing, where there was a campfire, cooking pot, and some log benches.

“Okay!” Mallow exclaimed. “These are the trial grounds! Here I need you to gather four items for the ultimate dish – a tiny mushroom, a mago berry, a revival herb, and a miracle seed!”

Pearl gained a bit of a confused look.

“That doesn’t sound… very appetizing.”

“Shh shhhhh! That doesn’t matter! I’ve let a pokemon guard each of these ingredients, and I’ve told them to be pretty obvious about it, so even though the forest is dense, you should be able to find them pretty quickly, knowing you!”

Pearl didn’t really know how to take compliments from strangers, so she simply thanked Mallow and laughed it off. 

With a determined nod, Pearl set out into the jungle to find Mallow’s ingredients. 

One, two, three, four! Though it took about an hour and a half to locate them through the dense jungle, Pearl found the pokemon guarding the ingredients. The weather had become warm to the point where Pearl was almost breaking a sweat, but the shade of the trees helped quite a bit.

Pearl headed back to the center clearing, and was rather surprised to see Kiawe and Lana waiting along with Mallow! They all waved to Pearl, and Pearl waved back.

“Awesome! Did you get all the ingredients?” Mallow asked.

“Yup! Though I don’t really understand how we’re gonna cook this…” Pearl replied.

Mallow let out a bit of a snort.

“That’s where my friends come in!” she said, motioning towards Kiawe and Lana.

“I brought a hard bone for mashing the ingredients up!” Kiawe said with a bright smile.

“…And I brought some fresh water to actually make it like, ‘soupy’…” Lana said quietly, pouring the handmade water jug she had out into the pot.

“Okay! Pearl! Drop those ingredients in and get mashing!” Mallow ordered, giving a confident, almost cheesy point.

Pearl was still a bit confused, and was high-key hoping she wouldn’t have to drink this ‘soup’. Still, she dropped the ingredients in and grabbed the bone, and got to it.

Mallow would continuously shout encouragement while adding spices to the soup, almost as if she was pretending they were in a cooking show. 

“STOP!!” Mallow suddenly shouted.

Pearl dropped the bone and wiped her brow off, taking a look at the vile-looking concoction she’d assisted in making. What was more vile, however, was the smell. Truly, that revival herb didn’t do good for the soup.

“We’re… not gonna eat this, right?” Pearl asked, covering her mouth and nose with her hand.

Mallow shook her head.

“Nope!”

A strong rustling could be heard in the bushes nearby, catching everyone but Mallow’s worried attention.

“But SHE will!”

On the cue, the biggest lurantis Pearl had ever seen jumped out of the bushes and skittered towards the pot. Kiawe and Lana jumped out of the way, and the only one left in the lurantis’s way of the pot was Pearl.

The totem lurantis raised its claws and let out a screech, and Pearl and Poppy got into battle stance.

Poppy’s only flying-type move, gust, wasn’t the strongest. So Pearl was hoping to pull off the minimize strategy she’d used previously.

However, the lurantis began charging a move, absorbing sunlight. As Pearl prepared to switch to Cherry to take the hit, Pearl noticed the lurantis chewing on an odd-looking herb.

“Shit.” she mumbled.

The power herb allowed the lurantis to gather sunlight faster, and before Pearl could call out an attack, it slashed at Poppy with solar-charged claws – taking out a good half of Poppy’s HP.

Pearl was admittedly panicking a little. The battle was off to a bad start, and even after Poppy’s gust, the lurantis was still standing strong.

To add more insult to injury, the lurantis screeched into the sky, and a trumbeak came to its aid.

Luckily, this time, the lurantis had to charge its solar blade. Unluckily, the trumbeak had a surprise waiting – in the form of the move rock blast. It only took three consecutive hits for Poppy to go down, and it fainted with a sad deflating noise.

Pearl was stuck. She could switch out to Azul to defeat the trumbeak, but then Azul would be quickly taken out by lurantis’s solar blade. She could switch to Cherry, but… there’d be no way Cherry would last more than one turn.

With a frustrated sigh and a muttered ‘sorry’, Pearl decided to let Cherry stall to give her time to revive Poppy.

Cherry was quick to faint, and so the dance began.

Pearl brought out Azul and ordered him to attack the trumbeak – and in between the time it took for lurantis to charge its solar blade, Azul managed to take out the trumbeak and do a little damage on the lurantis. Still, Azul was taken out by solar blade in one hit. 

Pearl only had Poppy left, and it was only at half health.

She took a deep breath in and let it out of its pokeball, as lurantis called for its second reinforcement from the sky – this time, a castform.

‘Oh no.’ Pearl thought. She knew EXACTLY what that castform was about to do.

Looking back at the others, Mallow had an almost fiendish grin on her face, while Kiawe and Mallow were both cheering for Pearl.

Just as Pearl had expected, the castform used sunny day – turning the once dappled sunlight harsh. Crossing her fingers, Pearl ordered Poppy to use minimize once again, hoping to all the powers that be that lurantis would miss. 

And by some miracle, it did.

Lurantis looked frustrated, and Pearl, who had practically been holding her breath for the past few minutes, let out a huge relieved sigh.

But this wasn’t the end.

The castform was effectively useless against Poppy, the real threat was lurantis. Just because Poppy avoided one attack didn’t mean it’d avoid the next. So, holding her hand tight, Pearl took a moment to heal Poppy before ordering the next gust attack on lurantis.

It was the moment of decision – Poppy was getting tired… but so was lurantis. But… Pearl knew Poppy couldn’t survive the attacks of both pokemon. So, to the confusion of Mallow, Pearl revived Azul.

Solar blade took Poppy out, but when Poppy fainted, it almost seemed as though it ‘burst’ in a flash of ghastly screams.

It was Poppy’s ability – aftermath.

The final damage was enough to take out the lurantis, who fell to the ground in an extravagant thud. 

All that was left was the castform, who quickly realized what it had coming. Pearl released Azul, and due to the castform’s sunny weather type-change, it was easily fainted by Azul.

And that was that.

With a half yell, half sigh, Pearl dropped to her knees.

“HOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.” she exclaimed, flapping one of her hands as both an attempt to fan herself and because she was simply overwhelmed.

“DO YOUR PARENTS LET YOU SWEAR LIKE THAT?!” Lana yelled from the bench, before being softly bapped on the head by Kiawe.

Mallow seemed genuinely surprised.

“You know, usually my trial is the make-or-break one for most trainers… but you… did it?” she said with an astonished look. “No, seriously, how did you do that?! That was amazing!!”

Mallow offered to help heal Pearl’s pokemon, and Lana and Kiawe joined the group to help heal lurantis – who took the pot of ‘soup’ and scuttled back into the brush.

Once Pearl’s pokemon were fully healed, she made sure to release Poppy and give it a big hug – as well as apologize to Cherry for using her as cannon fodder.

“Well! Go ahead and take out your passport – I’ve got a well-deserved reward for you!” Mallow said with a proud smile.

Pearl nodded and gave Mallow her passport, and Mallow stamped her very green symbol of completion in.

“Thank you so much!!” Pearl said with another nod, putting her passport away.

“Yea, it’s no problem!” Mallow replied.

Kiawe stepped in a bit.

“Hey, hope you don’t mind me asking, but after that battle, I’m really curious… your full name is ‘Pearl Markov’, correct?” he asked.

Pearl nodded

“Yep! Why do you ask? Did I accidentally spell it wrong?”

“No, no… I was just wondering if you were in any way related to a ‘Renee Markov’? As in, champion, region manager of the Hoenn League?”

Pearl looked a bit dumbfounded for a second.

“Yea…? That’s my mom!” she replied enthusiastically.

Kiawe pumped his fist and pointed at Lana.

“CALLED IT! You owe me 5 dollars!”

Lana looked defeated as she shuffled through her wallet, and Pearl was just left… confused. Lana attached the money to a fishing pole and started running.

“Come get it then!!”

“HEY!!”

Kiawe proceeded to chase Lana around, who was laughing as she dangled the money in front of him.

Mallow giggled a bit, and explained to Pearl;

“It’s cool, they’re just goofing around. The three of us are like siblings, and being the crafty youngest one, Lana likes to tease Kiawe a lot.” she said before pausing. “I think they have the suspicion that being a strong trainer runs in the family, haha!”

“Ohhhhhhhhhh!” Pearl said in realization.

“Anyways, your next stop would be the island’s Kahuna! I’d take you there to her, but I’m a bit booked for today in regards to challengers… I can take you tomorrow, though!”

Pearl nodded and smiled at Mallow.

“Of course! It gives me some time to catch up with my friends!”

“Wonderful! I’ll catch you tomorrow then!” Mallow said with a cheeky wink, before running back towards Kiawe and Lana, telling them to cut it out.

As Pearl stretched and approached the jungle’s exit, she couldn’t help but notice a familiar face waving towards her.

“Hey Pearl!! So how’d it go?” Hau called out.

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