🌙Moon – Chapter 9; for an electric trial there sure are a lot of bugs

Read from the start

Characters: Pearl, Lillie, Kukui, Aster, Molayne, Sophocles, Acerola

AN:

this was originally gonna be mostly filler but i feel like i was able to do smthng interesting with it? maybe. idk

it turned out way longer than i expected so :p

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That night, Pearl had an odd dream. She was in a starry field, not too different from the blank slates of pocket spaces she’d create. But… there was somebody there.

“Hello?” Pearl called out. 

She wasn’t a super vivid dreamer, unless Aster was involved – and it would seem Aster was likely unrelated to this, as Pearl’s perception of the figure in front of her was fuzzy. What Pearl could tell was that the person was tall, and had very long hair. Was it Sapphire? No, her hair texture wasn’t like this, and this person was much taller than Sapphire. 

The person turned around, and Pearl could see they had three eyes – the third seemed to be boring into her soul.

Pearl reached out, and…

“That’s the last thing you remember?”

“…Yea. I woke up with… uhh… one of Lillie’s pokemon sleeping on my face.”

Aster chuckled on the other side of the phone.

“I see! That does sound… odd. But I can assure I was busy elsewhere at that time. Do you have any recollection of anything that could be related?”

Pearl thought for a second. It could be tied to her research of legends in the library the night prior, but… Pearl wasn’t sure. It surely wasn’t any legend Pearl knew. She was curious, but didn’t want to leak any details about Nebby – remembering her promise to Lillie. Pearl accepted this would be a mystery for another day.

“…Maybe? I watched an anime with a 3-eyed woman last night. Maybe my brain is being weird.” Pearl lied.

“Ah, perhaps that’s it. Perhaps it was just one of those odd incomprehensible types of dreams, everyone has them.”

“Ok, thanks! Sorry to bug you so late… at least, I think it’s late for you right now.”

“It’s no problem! It’s always nice to hear from you, Pearl. Good luck out there today!”

“Ok! Love you, bye!”

Pearl hung up and sighed, folding her arms over the balcony’s railing. There was so much she didn’t know, and so much she felt was being intentionally hidden from her. With last night’s research, that list of things only grew.

Pearl heard the sliding door behind her open, and turned around. It was Lillie, rubbing her eyes a bit.

“Are you done? Who were you calling, anyways?” she asked.

“Just my aunt. She’s like, an expert on dreams and stuff so I figured I’d ask her.”

“You’re still thinking about that?”

“I don’t know why I’m still thinking of it! I guess I just never get weird dreams, so now that I get one I’m overthinking it.” Pearl said, her voice a bit frustrated.

“Maybe you could be hungry? Sometimes just being a bit hungry can set me off.”

Pearl sighed.

“Probably. Though I kind of feel like just going down in my pajamas, if you’re cool with that.”

“Hmm, I’d prefer to get ready for the day first, but you can go down and I’ll meet you there!” Lillie replied.

Pearl and Lillie headed back into their hotel room, where Nebby was sleeping soundly on one of the beds. Putting on some slippers, Pearl made her way down to the breakfast buffet the hotel offered.

It wasn’t nearly as fancy as the hotel in Akala, but it had a decent selection. Pearl just got some hashbrowns and juice, and sat down at a table. She opened her phone to scroll through social media, but was soon met with a text from Kukui.

>Hey Pearl! Lillie let me know last night you two made it to Ula’ula safely!

>Did you have any plans for today?

>>not really, why do you ask?

>I was wondering if you’d be able to meet me at the Hokulani Observatory! There’s something I wanted to show you. There’s a bus stop just outside the city that’ll take you up there!
>And if I remember your progress right, the next trial for you should be hosted there.

>>oh, sounds good! i’m eating right now but i’ll be up as soon as i get ready!

Pearl closed her messaging app and opened up the app for the blogging platform she liked, while continuing to eat – though at a bit of a quicker pace. She was feeling a bit tired of trials, but was curious about what Kukui wanted to show her. 

Lillie came down to meet Pearl after a while, and the two sat together – with Pearl showing Lillie the occasional funny picture she thought Lillie would like.

“So…” Lillie started.

“Did you have plans? I was going to head back to the library to look some things up, if you wanted to join.”

Pearl shook her head.

“I would, but Kukui texted me not too long ago saying he had something he wanted to show me up at the observatory. Plus like, trial stuff is up there too.”

“Oh! That’s alright then. Did he say what he wanted you to see?”

“Nah, kept it a mystery… which I guess is more reason for me to go.” Pearl said, taking a final bite of her hashbrowns.

“I’ve never been to a proper observatory before, but my family kind of has like, a thing for stars and stuff. So maybe it’ll help me connect with them more?”

“I see… well, you can always call me or text me if you see anything cool! Or anything that gives us more insight into the whole Nebby situation.” Lillie said, smiling.

“Will do!” Pearl said, getting up from her seat.

“I’m gonna head now! Catch you later!”

Pearl gathered everything she needed from her room, and headed out. 

She first got on a bus line that took her to the edge of the city, then went out to wait for the bus up to the observatory. But… there didn’t appear to be a bus stop sign? Pearl wasn’t sure where the right place to wait was.

She walked down the road a little bit, before she spotted three people in a familiar black and white getup… carrying an uprooted bus stop sign.

Pearl ran up to them and shouted, grabbing their attention.

“Hey!! What on EARTH are you even doing with that?!”

“Causing chaos, yo! Call this an epic prank compilation, because you’ve just been OWNED!” one of the grunts said.

“What.” was all Pearl could mumble.

“You wanna fight about it, kid?!” one of the other grunts said, making a hand gesture.

“You know what, not today.” Pearl replied calmly, simply walking away.

She felt a bit smug about it, as she could hear the grunts bickering behind her. While she might not know where the bus stop was thanks to those Team Skull members, she had her own idea. Pearl trailed off the sidewalk and into the bushes, making sure she was well hidden.

Then, she took her phone out and looked up pictures of the Hokulani Observatory. 

She constructed a clear visage of the mountain pathway in her mind, imagined it harder and harder, until suddenly, in a spark, she was there.

Pearl opened her eyes and looked around, and let out a sigh of relief – that she had not only teleported slightly off the trail where nobody could see, but that she’d also managed to get in the right place to begin with. Pearl was still trying to practice with her powers, and teleporting to locations she’d never been to was her current working point.

She walked up the hill by the roadside, and the terrain eventually evened out at the mountain’s peak. There, she could see Kukui waiting by the bus stop, leaning on some cliffside railing. Pearl ran up to him, waving, and he waved back – though he looked about as confused as he was happy to see Pearl.

“Hey Pearl! I never got a text from you – you… didn’t WALK up the mountain, did you?” Kukui asked, confusion obviously in his voice.

Pearl froze, realizing she didn’t really think beforehand when she teleported.

“Uhhh…” she said nervously.

“Don’t worry about it!”

Kukui looked a bit concerned, but to Pearl’s relief, he dropped the subject.

“Well, it’s nice that you’re here nonetheless!” he said with a smile, before turning out and pointing towards the horizon.

“Look over there! Can you see it?”

Pearl squinted.

It was cloudy, but in the distance, she could see the peak of another, higher mountain.

“It’s a mountain?”

Kukui laughed a little.

“Not just any mountain! That there is Mount Lanakila – the highest mountain in the Alola region. And, soon enough, it’ll be the home of Alola’s Pokemon League!”

“Wait, what?” Pearl asked, confused.

“I guess that makes sense, because I’ve never heard anyone bring up an Alolan champion, but I thought Alola already had a league.”

“Nope! Just the trials. But we’re finally building one!” Kuikui said, excitement in his voice.

“And when it’s finished, you’re more than welcome to participate once you’ve completed the trials, Pearl.”

Pearl continued to look onwards out to the horizon – the breeze slowly cleared some clouds, and she could make out a construction crane more clearly.

“I see…” Pearl responded, a bit lost in thought.

“You thinkin’ about something? I figured you’d be more excited.”

It’s something Pearl would never admit, but she felt an incredible pressure to live up to her parents. She wanted to be a powerful legendary force to be reckoned with like Emmy, as well as be one of the strongest trainers there could be like Renee.

When Pearl researched the nature of Alola’s island trials, she was… relieved. Relieved that they weren’t as competitive as the typical gym challenge, and that they focused more on friendship.

She didn’t want to think about either trampling her friends at the Pokemon League, or letting her self-imposed standards be crushed.

“Mm…” Pearl mumbled.

“I just didn’t sleep well, I’m a bit spacey.”

“That’s alright. Hey, if you’re not feeling quite up to the trial, I can drive you back down the mountain.” Kukui offered.

“No, I think I’ll survive. Maybe I just need the rush of a trial to get my head screwed back on.” Pearl replied, shaking her head.

“Alright, if you’re sure. I’m gonna head down the trail a bit to check out the wild pokemon, call me if you need me!”

“Will do!”

Pearl sighed as Kukui left. She didn’t want to overthink things, but was overthinking them anyway. After all, if all the horror stories Pearl had read on the internet of the Pokemon League tearing friendships apart were true, Pearl wouldn’t have her family.

She looked towards the observatory, and took out her phone to do some research.

The website for the island trials said it was an electric-type based trial.

“Shoot.” Pearl said under her breath.

Two out of three of Pearl’s team members were weak to electricity, and while Cherry resisted it, she was slow and the weakest of the trio. Still, Pearl was determined to figure something out.

She released Cherry from her pokeball, who came out with a yawn. Pearl picked up the small pokemon and headed inside the observatory.

It was quiet inside, but it was also early on a weekday. Before checking in at the front desk, Pearl decided to do some looking around at the various educational displays in the lobby.

Lots of information about constellations, comets, and other varied celestial movements. Pearl noticed a small section talking about the observatory’s partnership with the Mossdeep space center, but what really caught her eye was a display about meteors.

It described various mysterious artifacts found in meteors, possibly being proof of extraterrestrial life. But it also described an averted cataclysm – a massive meteor that had been on course to destroy Hoenn, if not the world. There was a grainy satellite picture on the board, and Pearl was taken aback by its description.

‘By the beliefs of the Draconid people in Hoenn, it’s prophesied Rayquaza would protect the planet by destroying a meteor every 1,000 years. This picture, taken by a nearby satellite, is believed to be one of the only existing photographs of Rayquaza. (2005)’

… 

Ah.

Pearl never knew much about ‘the episode’, as her family referred to it. She knew that it’s how her parents met, but…

“Hey! You’re that kid right?” a man’s voice called out from behind Pearl.

Pearl turned around, to see a slouched over man dressed in blue.

“That… kid? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Pearl asked in response.

“Haha, don’t worry, it’s definitely a good thing! The bow is kind of a dead giveaway, Soffy says you’re quite the hot topic in the trial captain groupchat. He was excited for when you’d show up.”

Pearl didn’t really know where to start.

“Wait, you guys have a groupchat?? Who’s Soffy, is he the trial captain here?”

“Yep! If you’d like, I can page him real quick and let him know there’s a challenger. My name’s Molayne, by the way!”

Pearl nodded.

“Nice to meet you! I guess you already know me through the other trial captains, but I’m Pearl. If you could call him up that’d be nice!”

Molayne nodded and called a ‘Sophocles’ up to the front through the intercom – it took Pearl a bit to realize ‘Soffy’ must’ve been a nickname.

As they waited, Molayne peered past Pearl to see the display she was looking at.

“Oh, that one’s interesting! I think it’s cool we got a picture of a legendary pokemon here at the observatory, but I think it’d be cooler to meet a pokemon that’s so closely tied to space like that!”

It took all of Pearl’s strength to not say something witty, or stupid, or both. Never had hiding her family member’s and her own status as legends felt harder.

Thankfully, one of the doors to the back opened, and a short young man came through.

“Sorry! I got caught up in my new project… and it looks like we have someone to test it!” Sophocles said, gesturing at Pearl.

“What?” Molayne and Pearl both said, almost in unison.

“Thought you’d noticed, Big Mo! I got a funky new trial gadget I’ve been itching to test out!”

Molayne just looked confused.

“No I… haven’t, really. There’s been that weird stuff that’s been keeping me busy.”

“Riiiiiiiight,” Sophocles said.

“Anyways, Pearl, you ready?”

Sophocles seemed excited, and while Pearl wanted to continue talking with Molayne, she didn’t want to let him down.

“Sure thing!” she responded.

“Then let’s gooooo!” Sophocles cheered, leading Pearl to the back, unlocking the staff door.

He led Pearl to a workroom, where an odd device was suspended by all sorts of wires. Pearl could see some charjabug scuttling around in the gaps between shelves.

“OK! This is my latest invention, I call it the ‘Ping Totem Pokemon 2.0’! It’s a new and improved version of my old trial device, and it shoooooould call over the totem pokemon!”

“Okay?” Pearl said, a bit unsure. Did she not have to do anything?

“Well, I’ll fire ‘er up!” Sophocles said smugly, as he proceeded to press switches and set dials, and ultimately pulled a lever.

…Which cut the power.

“Uh oh.” Sophocles said softly. Pearl couldn’t see his expression in the darkness, but assumed he wasn’t expecting this.

Almost immediately, a voice came through Sophocles’s pager.

“Soffy?! What did you DO in there?! We have a school group coming in 20 minutes!” Molayne said in a panic.

Sophocles didn’t respond, and only dug around for his phone, and turned on its flashlight so he could find Pearl in the darkness.

“Ok! New plan! Uh, consider it part of the trial!” Sophocles said, briefly pausing.

“Here’s a pager – I want you to go down the hallway and unlock some doors! Specifically, the uh, door to the backup generator.”

Pearl took the pager, but looked confused.

“Why do I need to unlock them? Can’t you do that?”

“Er… not to freak you out, but uh, there might… be something… that only a strong trainer can deal with in that room.”

Pearl was, in fact, freaked out. This felt like a horror movie she’d watched one time. But she simply sighed and nodded, and exited the room.

While she had her phone’s flashlight with her, Pearl’s visibility still wasn’t great. She figured that because Poppy was a ghost-type, it’d have an easier time guiding her around, so Pearl recalled Cherry to her pokemon to free up her arms, and called out Poppy.

“So, it should be pretty obvious what room it is… it has a big HIGH VOLTAGE sign and a smaller sign that says it’s the backup generator room. Just, try to watch your step? I think the ping might’ve made some of the residents here a bit… wiggly.” Sophocles said through the pager.

“Residents??” Pearl mumbled to herself, thoroughly convinced this was in fact, a horrifying haunted observatory trial.

Pearl gripped Poppy’s strings, and let it lead the way… only to stop when she felt a nibble-tug at her ankle.

She screamed louder than she’d ever want to admit, kicked her leg forwards, and turned around… then looked down. 

Oh. It was a grubbin. But by the looks of it, the thing looks agitated, so Pearl called Poppy to battle it. The battle was quick, since it was just a small bug, after all. Pearl squeezed Poppy a bit to calm herself down after that scare.

Continuing to walk down the hallway, Pearl was met with another shock – quite literally. She felt herself nearly trip on what she thought was a box… but when it gave her a defensive light shock, Pearl figured it must be a pokemon. She shined her flashlight on it, to see a very upset Charjabug.

She was a bit hesitant to let Poppy battle it, knowing of its weakness to electricity, but Poppy seemed raring to defend its trainer from being shocked.

Thankfully, Poppy was able to tank the charjabug’s hits quite well, and swiftly defeated it. When the battle was over, Pearl went to continue down the hallway, but Poppy wouldn’t budge. She was concerned her pokemon had gotten paralyzed, but Poppy didn’t have a static feel – one of the most telling signs of paralysis.

Suddenly, the hallway lit up, with Poppy as the source. It took Pearl a second, but she realized her pokemon was evolving!

The light became stronger, almost to the point where Pearl had to shield her eyes. But with a large flash, the light was no more. Pearl shined her flashlight in Poppy’s direction, to see her beloved balloon pokemon had evolved into drifblim.

Pearl smiled and hugged Poppy, who, for the first time, was able to hug back.

Pearl felt a new wave of determination, and she could spy a door with a big red warning sign on it at the end of the hallway. She made sure to carefully not step on any bug pokemon, and approached the door – which was indeed the door to the backup generator. 

“Ok! I’m here! There’s, uh, a keypad that looks like it’s getting power. What’s the code?” Pearl paged Sophocles.

“The code is 738! Good luck.” his voice said on the other side.

“Good luck?” Pearl asked, but got no response. 

She just sighed and entered the code, and the door unlocked.

Pearl was about to shine her phone’s flashlight inside the room, but noticed it had suddenly gained a full charge, with the indicator that it was charging. 

Shining her flashlight forwards, a chill went down her spine as she saw a massive bug pokemon, surrounded by charjabug, resting on the generator. The bug’s wings hummed and its eyes glowed yellow – before it lifted off, making its way towards Pearl and Poppy aggressively.

Pearl was about to say any kind of expletive in shock, and braced herself; but without command, Poppy melted into shadows and reappeared in front of Pearl, slamming the vikavolt back – which only pissed it off more.

Poppy looked back to Pearl, and though drifblim wasn’t the most expressive pokemon, Pearl could tell that it was determined.

“That was a good start Poppy! Just be careful, let’s do the ‘ol minimize trick first before we get really offensive!”

Poppy nodded, but was grabbed in the vikavolt’s large pinsirs – which quickly faded through Poppy’s ectoplasmic body, disorienting the bug pokemon a bit.

‘Was that a vice grip? I guess whatever it was, it was a normal type move…’ Pearl thought.

Poppy proceeded to minimize, and the totem vikavolt flew back and began charging with the help of some charjabug – causing the building’s lights to flicker.

“Alright Poppy! Let’s get up a barrage of shadow ball, don’t let up!”

As Poppy lobbed balls of ghastly energy towards the vikavolt, the bug continued to charge – until it unleashed it’s ultimate spark. Poppy took the hit, but seemed to be in a pinch – and paralyzed, as well.

Pearl sighed and fished around in her bag.

“Sorry buddy, gotta ‘cheat’ for this one.” she said, facing the vikavolt – giving Poppy a hyper potion, and was about to take another turn to give Poppy a paralyze heal, but it seemed that Poppy became… oddly focused, as if building up energy.

Before Pearl could administer the paralyze heal, Poppy faded into shadows at quite an impressive speed. And for a few seconds, there was silence – aside from the humming of the vikavolt’s wings.

Then, back out of the shadows, Poppy uppercutted the bug pokemon with a shadowy force. The vikavolt recoiled back, and slowly ceased hovering as the glow in its eyes went dim.

“Holy shit???” Pearl said with a gasp, as Poppy floated back to Pearl’s side.

Poppy was smiling with its eyes, and when she laid a hand on it to give it a pet, there was no staticy feeling.

‘But how…?’

Pearl shook the thought for the moment, and moved forwards into the generator room – the exhausted vikavolt and cowering charjabug allowing her entry. She felt like paging Sophocles to ask how to activate the generator, but a couple of grubbin nudged her hand towards a lever button labeled ‘RESTART’.

It was a hefty button, but Pearl pressed it – and after a few seconds, the generator hummed to life and the lights flickered on.

Pearl stepped out of the generator room to see Sophocles running down the hallway towards her, with a huge smile on his face.

“PEARL!! You did it!! And before the school group got here, too! You’re a real lifesaver!”

“Did you like, secretly plan this to happen?” Pearl asked.

Sophocles waved his hands in front of him in a crossing motion.

“No way, dude! I was gonna have the totem pokemon fly into the room! But I guess the ping device made it surge the power… this would be a cool challenge for the future, but I don’t think Big Mo would let me get away with cutting the power that much.”

“Hmm, I see… why do you have a swarm of electric bug pokemon in your generator room, anyways?”

“Cheap power! Bug chow is cheaper than paying for electricity.”

“Right…” Pearl mumbled, a bit confused, yet fascinated.

“Anyways, take out your passport! You’ve more than deserved this stamp – I’m not even sure if the other captains will believe me when I tell them.” Sophocles said, pulling a rubber stamp out of his fanny pack.

Pearl nodded and handed him her trainer’s passport, a sense of accomplishment washing over her.

“Well, I gotta make sure my computer didn’t get fried again. Make sure to say bye to Big Mo on your way out!” Sophocles said with a wave, as he went back to his workroom.

“Will do!” Pearl responded, having back.

Pearl exited the back hallway to see a very relieved Molayne, as well as a number of preschool children excitedly looking over the displays.

“I owe ya one, Pearl. If those kids showed up and nothing had power… boy, that wouldn’t be a fun one.”

“It’s no problem! It was kinda creepy at first with it being dark and all, but Poppy really blew it out of the park!” Pearl replied, gesturing to Poppy – who got stuck in the doorframe.

Molayne and Pearl both laughed, and Pearl recalled Poppy to its pokeball to get some well-deserved rest.

“You know, if you ever wanna talk space, I’m your guy! Not often do I see people that interested in my funny little displays, haha.”

“Hm, sure! I didn’t know you ran this place.” Pearl said, nodding. She exchanged phone numbers with Molayne, and waved as she exited the observatory.

Outside, Kukui was waiting for Pearl, and gave a wave.

“Hey Pearl! Figured I’d wait for you in case you wanted a ride back into town, I’m done all the surveying I needed to do up here.” he said.

“That’d be wonderful!”

Pearl hopped into the shotgun seat, and Kukui pulled out of the parking lot.

“So, how’d it go?” he asked.

“Really well! Poppy even evolved! Though it did kind of feel like a horror movie at first… it’s a long story.” she answered.

“Haha, really? Well, I’m sure Molayne will catch me up later, he’s an old friend of mine. Went through the trials together ourselves when we were younger!”

“Oh, that’s neat! I did get his number, I might text him later with some questions I had about one of the displays…”

—

Kukui dropped Pearl off at the hotel she was staying at, and waved before driving off again.

Pearl made her way up to her hotel room, and when she opened the door, was surprised to see Lillie sitting with someone familiar on the edge of one of the beds, watching TV.

“Oh, it’s Pearl! How’d ya do out there?” Acerola asked with a wave.

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