🌙Moon – Chapter 7; rocks? my uncle likes rocks

Read from the start

Characters: Pearl, Hau, Lillie, Mallow, Hapu, Olivia, Faba, Colress, Plumeria

AN:

this is like mostly filler sowwy. i forgot how to write in the 4 months i forgot abt this

also theres more cronge colress momence bc i needed to segue into faba somehow

anyways. yolo

also we have titlecards now which are made by me in mmd :} thought theyd be funky

---

“Hau!!” Pearl called back, running towards her friend. She met him with a hug, though she quickly broke away after realizing how sweaty she was from the heat and the high-energy battle she’d just gotten out of.

“It’s been goin’ alright! I actually just finished Mallow’s trial! It was pretty tough.”

“Oh, neat! I was just headed that way to take part myself. It wasn’t… too tough, was it…?” Hau replied.

“Ehhhh…” was all Pearl said, with a bit of a concerned grimace on her face. Though, her expression quickly returned to normal with a sigh.

“You still have your starter with you, right? You’ll probably have a way easier time since you have a fire-type with you.”

“Hmm… makes sense! I’ll give it my best shot and let you know when I’m done!”

“Cool cool! Lillie and I have a room at the nearby motel if you’d wanna chill afterwards. Otherwise, we were gonna wait for Mallow to direct us over to the Kahuna, which’ll probably be… tomorrow, maybe?”

“Alright! See ya later then!” Hau said with a wave, as he walked past Pearl into the jungle.

Pearl returned to the hotel, relatively exhausted. Lillie seemed happy to see her back, but gave her space so she could cool down from the summer heat and change out of her sweaty clothes. Pearl went straight back into a pair of pajamas, and flopped down onto the bed next to Lillie.

“…And I think that was enough for one day. You cool with just chilling here? Hau will probably be around later.”

“Oh…! Of course, I wasn’t planning on doing much anyways. I agree though, it seems so much hotter outside after that storm. Nebby’s been sitting in front of the AC unit since they woke up…” Lillie said, chuckling a bit and gesturing towards Nebby, who was indeed contently sitting in front of the cool air.

Pearl plugged her phone into a charging cable before lifting it up in front of her face. She got comfy and propped her head up on a pillow, and started to scroll through her social media feeds. It was mostly anime and nonsensical posts, which Pearl would show Lillie to more often than not elicit a giggle. Lillie eventually laid down next to Pearl to better look at her screen, and the two browsed Pearl’s feed until it buzzed with a text from Hau.

>What room u guys in 👁👁 I’m done with the trial

>IMG_78948.JPG

The attached image was of Hau’s torracat, who looked pretty scruffed up, but happy.

Pearl quickly replied with the room number, and no more than 30 seconds later a knock fell on their room’s door.

“I’ll get it!” Lillie said with a smile as she scooted out of the bed, and opened the door.

“Were you just standing in front of the motel when you texted me?” Pearl asked as Hau walked in past Lillie and set his things down on the foot of the unoccupied bed.

“..Maybe?” Hau replied, his tone playful.

“Hey, if you’re interested, I brought the disc set of WSLFS redux with me if you guys wanna watch!”

“WSLFS?” Lillie asked, annunciating every letter clearly with an air of confusion.

“It’s that anime we watched back at Hau’s place! Except like, the remake. Hence the redux part.” Pearl replied, sitting up and crossing her legs.

“Ohhhh, that makes sense! Sure, we can watch!”

Hau nodded to Lillie, and dug the disc set out of his bag. Pearl and Lillie both got comfy, and were soon joined by Hau – after he got the DVD player below the TV all set up.

The three binged through the disc set, and as it got later, ordered some food to be delivered. Partially though eating, Pearl received a text from Mallow.

>Hey, sorry for such a late follow-up! Turns out I’m still super booked in terms of challengers tomorrow, would you be ok with making your way to Konikoni city yourself? I’ll send you the directions and address of the Kahuna’s store.

>>yea, no prob! good luck with the challengers :0

Pearl sighed, as she was getting a bit sleepy. Still, she opened up the directions Mallow sent and quickly reviewed them, mumbling out the key locations to herself. Thankfully, there was a long, straight road that cut through the ranchlands and led directly to Heahea city, so it’d be a straightforward – if not long – walk.

The three friends got about halfway through before they got so groggy that Hau turned the TV off, and they drifted off to sleep.

—

Morning came, and per usual, everyone woke up early. Hau had plans to train a bit first before he challenged the Kahuna, so Pearl and Lillie once again said their goodbyes to Hau before setting off on the long road together.

The bus line was late, so Pearl managed to convince Lillie to walk along the path next to the road with her. It was quiet, and there weren’t many – if any trainers out looking for a battle. It was nice, and Lillie even felt confident enough to let Nebby out of the bag to stroll, given that they were the only ones around.

Suddenly, a voice called out from behind the two, accompanied by a whinny.

“‘Scuse me! Coming through!”

Lillie stuffed Nebby back into her bag, and the two separated to make way for what was behind them – a short trainer with long black braided hair riding a mudsdale. Once the pokemon was ahead of them, it reared lightly and turned to face the friends.

The trainer riding the horse pokemon looked a bit confused, but ultimately shrugged and hopped off the pokemon and gave a small wave to Pearl and Lillie.

“Well, ain’t that something! Guess this old girl has always loved attention… hope you don’t mind if she sniffs ‘ya for a second…”

Almost on cue, the mudsdale leaned its massive head towards Lillie, who seemed to freeze up at a pokemon so large. But Pearl moved in and stroked it between the eyes, which the horse pokemon seemed to greatly enjoy.

“She’s cute! Did she wanna battle at all?” Pearl asked, looking over towards the pokemon’s rider.

The other trainer let out a small laugh, shaking her head.

“No, no, not now at least! I was just takin’ her out for a run, is all. Name’s Hapu, by the way! …My name, not her’s. Are you two takin’ on the island challenge?”

Lillie silently shook her head, and Pearl spoke up.

“I am! My name’s Pearl! I was just on my way to see this island’s Kahuna to challenge them!” Pearl paused for a second before gesturing towards Lillie.

“And this is my friend Lillie! She’s not a trainer, but I really like traveling with her!”

Hapu simply smiled and dug a carrot out of her bag, handing it to Lillie.

“Here – she’s been eyeing your bag, I think she must think there’s treats in there. This’ll settle her down.”

Lillie grabbed the treat hesitantly, and with a bit of a shaky hand, offered it to the mudsdale. Without hesitation, the horse pokemon chomped the carrot in one bite, eliciting a surprised squeak from Lillie. 

Hapu just let out a hearty laugh for someone her stature, before patting her pokemon’s side, grabbing it’s attention. 

“Well, I’ll let you two get goin’! But I expect we’ll meet again soon, my old man’s the Kahuna of Poni Island! I’ll remember you two for then!” she said, promptly hopping back up on her pokemon and giving it commands to continue onwards.

Before Pearl or Lillie could properly reply, they were gone, running off into the distance.

There was a moment of silence, before Lillie spoke up.

“That’s… the biggest pokemon I’ve ever seen, I think.” she said in awe.

Pearl laughed a little and grabbed Lillie’s hand.

“Well, I guess I gotta show you some of my aunt’s dragons some time!” she said, picking up her pace a little.

The two made it to Heahea city by noon, where they stopped for lunch at Burnetts’ lab. Lillie decided her legs hurt too much from the walk, so she’d stick at the lab while Pearl continued to Konikoni.

The main path to Konikoni city was a road carved through a tunnel, but Pearl opted to instead walk the cavern by foot. At the tunnel’s foot traffic entrance, Pearl was stopped by what appeared to be a law officer.

“Sorry, foot traffic here is closed at the moment, you can go and take the bus. Some folks who regularly cause trouble around here decided to try and block off the path.” they said, shaking their head.

“Regularly cause trouble? It’s not those Team Skull people, is it?” Pearl asked.

“Well, we’re technically not supposed to disclose, but… yes, it’s Team Skull. Still, we’ll deal with things as quickly as possible, I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

Pearl put on a pout and crossed her arms.

“I’ve dealt with those bozos before! Lemme in there, and it’ll be open again in no time!” she said with a confident tone.

The officer rolled their eyes, and lifted a finger to speak, but their mouth was left agape as their eyes drifted beyond Pearl.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice spoke up.

“Yes, why don’t you let her in? I’m sure some trainer giving them a good old taste of cruel defeat would be more efficient than just trying to talk it out”

Pearl turned around to see a tall, muscular woman in pink behind her, with her arms crossed.

“Oh… fine. Yes, Miss Olivia. But only if you supervise in case something goes awry.” the officer said, standing out of the way of the tunnel’s entrance and moving the small wooden barricade that had been set up to the side.

“Thank you.” Olivia replied, looking down to Pearl and moving her hand in a shooing motion towards the cave.

“Thank you!” Pearl said with a nod as she ran into the tunnel.

Team Skull grunts tried to stop Pearl from going through the cave, but she was swiftly able to defeat every one of them. Pearl would occasionally look behind her, only to see Olivia watching from a distance. 

Pearl had no idea who she was, but assumed she must be in a position of power to convince someone to let her bypass so easily.

Olivia caught up to Pearl just as she exited the tunnel, and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. 

“Hm?” Pearl emoted as she turned around.

“That was excellent work! To be honest, I wasn’t sure if Mallow’s description was accurate, but now I can confidently say I’m excited for you to challenge me after seeing you deal with those grunts so cleanly!”

It took Pearl a second to connect the dots in her head. Mallow told her about me? I’m challenging her later?

Then, almost like a lightbulb went off in her head, Pearl’s eyes grew wide.

“Ohhhhhh!! You must be the Kahuna, aren’t you?”

Olivia smiled and nodded.

“That would be me! You must be Pearl, correct? Mallow told me you were an exceptional trainer.” She paused for a second, stepping ahead of Pearl.

“Here, why don’t you follow me to my shop in Konikoni to rest for a bit? While you do that, I can set up your challenge.”

“Sounds good!” Pearl replied as she followed Olivia down the footpath.

It wasn’t a long walk to Konikoni, but Pearl could smell the city even before they arrived. It was an overwhelming aroma of incense and freshly cooked food, that only got stronger as the two approached the front gates.

Olivia led Pearl down the corridor-like city, which was lined with vendors of all sorts. Pearl was starting to get a bit spacey, as all the noises and smells were bordering on overstimulating – but she was quickly snapped back to reality when Olivia spoke.

“Alright, we’re here!”

Olivia opened the door of a nearby building, with a bell jingling as she did. Pearl stepped inside and investigated the store with her eyes – coming to the conclusion that it must’ve been some kind of jewelry shop.

“Feel free to hang around, I’ll let my assistant know when I’ve finished setting up so she can tell you! And please, if you’d like to buy anything, feel free!” Olivia said with a nod.

“I’m off now! I’m excited to challenge you.”

Pearl nodded and waved as she watched Olivia leave the store. She stood there for a bit, before slowly moving to investigate the store around her.

The stock was mostly jewelry of all sorts – necklaces, rings, earrings, and more. Though, there was also an assortment of standalone polished gemstones.

The assistant at the cash register caught Pearl staring, and spoke up.

“You know, Olivia puts together most of these herself. She’s a real pro!”

“Oh, neat!” Pearl said, looking up from the display case she was looking down at.

“My uncle does this kind of thing too – well, the polishing and collecting gemstones thing, I’m not sure how big he is into making jewelry.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful! Maybe you’ll find something he likes?” the assistant asked.

“Hmm… I dunno about him, but maybe I can find something for someone else…”

Pearl moved around the store some more, before eventually stopping in front of a spinner with earrings on all sides. As she looked over it, there was a pair that caught Pearl’s eye – a set of spherical polished moonstone studded earrings, no extra flairs. 

Pearl had seen raw moonstone before, but was surprised to see they became a pleasant baby blue color when polished. It was then that Pearl made her decision.

She brought the earrings up to the checkout, and dug around in her bag for her wallet.

“Oh, these are pretty! If you don’t mind me asking, are these for anyone special? I can put them in gift wrapping if you’d like, in that case.” the assistant asked as they rang up Pearl’s purchase.

“They’re for my friend! This kind of color reminds me of her, so I thought I’d get her a little gift. No gift wrapping, I can just carry them in my bag!”

The assistant nodded and handed the earrings back to Pearl, who carefully put them in one of her bag’s inner pockets. It was a bit pricier than Pearl had anticipated, but wasn’t worried that her parents would chew her out.

For the next 25 or so minutes, Pearl hung around on a bench in the store, browsing her phone. 

The assistant managed to catch her attention and let her know that Olivia was ready, instructing her to simply follow the road signs past the graveyard on Memorial hill to get to the Ruins of Life, where the battle was to be located.

Pearl thanked the assistant, and made her way to Memorial hill. Once she had made it outside town and to a clearing, she released Azul from his pokeball to walk along with her. Pearl hadn’t actually been informed of what type Olivia specialized in, but Pearl’s educated guess based off of her hobbies was that Olivia specialized in either rock- or ground-types. Either way, Azul would be indispensable.

Memorial hill was quiet, with only a few people in the graveyard paying their respects. Pearl tried her best to respectfully walk through, but couldn’t shake the feeling that she was somehow being watched. It wasn’t even that late, which is what Pearl found the most odd – any ghost-type pokemon lurking would probably be asleep at this time.

Which was when Pearl spotted her.

The woman had bright pink and yellow pigtails, and when the two locked eye contact, she pretended to not see Pearl. That of course piqued Pearl’s curiosity, so she made her way towards the cliff in which the woman was sitting on.

Pearl tried catching her attention without being too noisy, but it would almost seem like the woman was ignoring her. So, she commanded Azul to spray a weak stream of water at her. This, of course, caught her attention quickly.

“Hey!! I’m ignoring you for a reason, leave me alone. I’m trying to vibe.”

Pearl just looked even more confused.

“Huh?? Hey-! Why were you staring at me? Do you know me or something??”

The woman sighed and shifted a little, moving over so that Pearl could see the skull-motif tattoo on her abdomen.

“Oh, let me assure you – you’re very popular with all the problems you’ve been causing my little siblings. But I was specifically instructed to avoid some Draconid kid with a big yellow bow, so for now, you’re not my problem.”

The woman’s words only partially made sense. Given the tattoo and the ‘little siblings’ Pearl was supposedly causing trouble for, she could only assume the woman was a member of Team Skull.

But how was she able to recognize Pearl based on description? It could be word of mouth from grunts, but Pearl thought an Alola native specifically knowing she was a Draconid was odd. Nonetheless, Pearl moved into a stance, hoping to get some answers.

“Look! How about you battle me, and when I win, you tell me who on earth you are and how you know me!!”

The woman just laughed.

“Wow, she really wasn’t wrong when she described you. Look, kid, you probably have better things to do, and I’m just trying to chill, so leave me alone.” she said in an annoyed tone.

Pearl had never had anyone straight up deny a battle before, so she was a bit shocked. Pearl felt beyond intrigued, but decided to respect the woman’s decision. After all, Pearl had a grand trial battle to attend, and some random Skull member wasn’t worth her trouble. 

Without a word, Pearl continued walking onwards to the Ruins of Life.

The entrance to the ruins was located in a clearing, where Olivia was already waiting. Upon hearing Pearl’s footsteps, she turned around from attending to her nosepass, and waved.

“Alright! Shall we begin?” Olivia asked, wasting no time.

Pearl nodded, and both Azul and herself got into a sort of battle stance. 

“Of course!”

Olivia smiled, and gave an impressive flex of her muscles.

“Alright! Now, I know you’ve dealt with that old man Hala before, so I guess this is a little different. That guy loves his theatrics, but I’m usually more chillaxed, I’d like to think.” Olivia said.

“Of course, I’m only chillax when it comes to presentations. Don’t expect me to go easy on you! I am Olivia, Kahuna of Akala Island and rock-type extraordinaire!”

With that, Olivia called forwards her nosepass, and Pearl called out Azul.

If it wasn’t for her nosepass’s ability, sturdy, Azul would have one-hitted it. But it came out with 1 hp, and was able to paralyze Azul. 

Not like it mattered, though – using aqua jet, Azul still moved faster than the slow nosepass and took it out.

Next up on Olivia’s end was boldore, and Pearl took the turn to heal Azul of his paralysis – who seemed quite happy about it.

Once again, if it wasn’t for sturdy, Azul would have one-shotted the poor rock pokemon. Pearl let out a groan, knowing this battle would be dragged on for just a slight bit longer. 

With an aqua jet, the boldore fell to the ground, and was returned to its pokeball. Olivia looked a bit annoyed that she was being swept so easily, and maintained her confident composure.

“Alright! Here’s my partner, get ready!” she called out, as she sent out her final pokemon – lycanroc.

It was faster than Azul, but Azul was able to tank its hits well. With only a few turns of hard-hitting water-type moves, lycanroc was down.

It was a bit underwhelming for Pearl, as she had expected it to be harder – but thanks to her type advantage, it was like a walk in the park. She picked up and grabbed Azul, twirling him around in the air, as Olivia let out a frustrated sigh and recalled her fainted pokemon.

“Congratulations, Pearl! I’ll say, that brionne of yours is quite the powerhouse… I really wasn’t expecting it to hit as hard as it did!” Olivia said, her face now a smile.

“Here, take out your trainer’s passport! I have a special reward for you.”

Pearl enthusiastically nodded, and dug her passport out of her bag. Just like Hala had done, Olivia took out a large stamp, and placed a page-wide mark in her passport.

“I’m sure Mallow and her friends will be enthusiastic to hear about your easy victory, she was really rooting for you!” Olivia said, putting the stamp away.

“Hey, it’s getting a bit late, would you want a ride back to Heahea? No pressure.”

“Oh, sure! I’ve done a bunch of walking today, so I’m sure my legs would appreciate it.” Pearl replied with a nod. 

Pearl followed Olivia out of the clearing, and over to the road where her car was parked. She recalled Azul to his pokeball, and got seated in the shotgun side seat.

Pearl was a bit sleepy, so she wasn’t much for conversation with Olivia, who respected that. She just looked out the window at the world passing by, until Olivia pulled in to the parking lot at Burnett’s lab.

“We’re here! Figured this is where you’d like me to stop.” Olivia said, stopping the car.

“Hm? How’d you know?” Pearl asked in response.

“Burnett’s an old friend of mine! She was one of the people who told me how talented of a trainer you were.”

“Ohhh! Makes sense!” Pearl said as she hopped out of the car.

“Well, thanks for the ride!”

“Yea, no problem!” Olivia said with a smile, as she waited until Pearl was on the sidewalk to start the car back up again and drive away.

Pearl wanted to see Lillie and ask Kukui what to do next, but emotionally and physically, she was exhausted. She decided it wouldn’t hurt to crash for the night, so she made her way to one of the many hotels in the city and booked a room.

It was much nicer than the previous motel she’d stayed at, and even more so than any Pokecenter hostel. Pearl collapsed into one of the beds, and texted Hau the location of the hotel and room number, before passing out – only awaking briefly when Hau entered the room an undefined amount of time later.

—

Pearl slept in a bit that morning, so much so that Hau actually woke her up. Neither of them really had plans, and while Pearl was raring to go on to the next island, Hau wanted to do some exploring. 

Nearby the hotel the two were staying at was a full-on luxury resort and marina, which Hau wanted to check out. Pearl and Hau got ready for the day, and made their way to the resort.

The actual resort building was massive, and in the distance behind it, Pearl and Hau could see a golf course.

“We have golf in Alola??” Hau said, almost looking dumbfounded. 

They walked past the massive plaza and over to the marina, to check out the various boats docked there. It was there that a familiar distinctly-haired man quickly caught both Hau and Pearl’s attention.

“Oh my gosh, wait… it’s not like I didn’t believe those pictures you showed me… but that’s really him, isn’t it?” Hau whispered to Pearl, slightly gesturing at the person who was definitely Colress.

Pearl elbowed Hau a little bit.

“Duh, he’s really here! Which means she’s here too! I bet she’s staying at this exact resort!”

The two scooted so they were partially obscured by a boat as they watched Colress converse with someone who appeared to be another scientist with green glasses. Colress looked rather frustrated with him, and eventually stepped back.

“No, no, no way, no how, I told you, I’m only here for the equipment! I got my own weird questionable stuff to worry about, I’m… NOT doing that.” he said, his tone indicating he was more than fed up with the other man.

He walked away, frustrated, as the other man looked defeated. He noticed Pearl and Hau as he walked past, and his expression lightened a bit.

“Oh, hey, you’re that girl with the strong brionne, right? I never got your name, did I?”

Pearl froze. To be recognized by other trainers was one thing, but to leave an impact in the mind of the husband of her favorite idol? Pearl felt almost unreasonably accomplished for something so small.

Still, she did her best to collect herself, took a deep breath, and spoke.

“Uh, yea! That’s me! My name’s Pearl, and this is my friend Hau I told you about! He’s also a pretty big fan!”

“Oh, nice to meet you two officially, then! You know, I can call Lune down to say hi, if you two want.”

Pearl was practically vibrating in place, but before she could say anything, Hau interjected.

“That’d be wonderful, but we’re kind of busy at the moment! Maybe later though!”

Colress looked a bit confused, while Pearl looked downright offended. 

“Well… alrighty then! I’m sure we’ll bump into each other again though, haha! Stay safe out there!” Colress said, as he waved and continued walking past.

Pearl waited until Colress was out of earshot to speak.

“HAU?! What was that for?! We could’ve had a one on one exclusive meeting with her! Are you out of your mind?!”

“Pearl, I know you. And I know you would’ve completely lost your mind and made yourself look like an idiot. I wanted to save you that trouble because I know you’d regret it.” Hau replied, shrugging and shaking his head.

Pearl only sighed. 

“I guess you’re right… hopefully, I can mentally prepare myself for whenever we bump into Colress again, though.”

Pearl stretched her arms a bit before looking onwards to the man Colress had been talking to, who was scrolling through a tablet. The two were going to continue talking down the marina anyways, so they decided to ask what happened.

Surprisingly, the man spoke to them the moment he saw them move towards him.

“Oh, you two there! Are you by chance working on the island challenge?”

It seemed completely unrelated to anything, but Pearl spoke up.

“Uh, yea? What was that all about earlier, though? You sounded like you were fighting.”

The man let out a frustrated sigh.

“It’s none of your business. Just an annoying man stuck in his ways and afraid of progress.” he said with a huff, adjusting his green, oversized glasses.

“But that doesn’t matter to you. I’m Faba of the Aether Foundation! We recently began sponsoring the island challenges, and I’ve been looking for some challengers to take on a tour of our island! …But so far, nobody has accepted my offer. So that’s why I’m asking you two!”

Hau and Pearl looked a tad weirded out, Pearl moreso. She remembered Colress’s words about not trusting Aether, which came in a new light especially after seeing the tailend of his argument with Faba.

“Hau, is this guy, like, legit?” Pearl whispered to her friend.

“I mean, I think? The Aether Island is a giant artificial island that got built some 20 years ago. Grandpa manages sponsorships, and I think he mentioned they do like, pokemon rehabilitation or something.”

It seemed Faba could hear the two despite their whispering.

“That’s right! The Aether Foundation takes in pokemon that are hurt and rehabilitates them, and gives pokemon unable to live in the wild a safe place to stay!” he chimed in, looking smug.

While Pearl was still uncertain, Hau gave her a little nudge.

“Why not? It’s not like we got anything better to do.” he whispered.

Pearl eventually gave in with a nod, and Faba led the two onto the Aether Foundation’s speedboat. It was roomy and clean inside, and in no time at all, they were off.

Faba tried and failed to make conversation with the two, who were mostly just browsing their phones. Pearl wasn’t keeping track of the time, but they shortly stopped, and Faba led the two out onto an artificial dock.

“Welcome to Aether Paradise!”

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