🌙Moon – Chapter 10; ghost adventures but not really

Read from the start

Characters: Pearl, Lillie, Kukui, Hau, Guzma, Acerola

AN:

hi besties. take this

i know my standards for revisions are low but this is literally not revised one bit. i didn’t even look over it myself other than skimming im just like #yolo this time i guess

the acerola thing is confusing without au context im sorry </3

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“Acerola?”

“Oh…! I should have asked before inviting her over, shouldn’t I…” Lillie said, turning down the TV and facing Pearl.

“Oh, no worries! Was she able to help more at the library?”

“Yes, actually! Though, uhm… she told me I can’t tell anyone, it’s some kind of sworn secret.”

“What?” Pearl replied, confused.

“If it’s related to Nebby, I think you can trust me with it as well.”

Acerola interrupted with a giggle.

“Hehe, you just came back from Sophocles’s trial, right? Which means mine is neeeeext~!” she said in a sing-songy tone.

“Tell ya what Pearl, Lillie’s told me a lot about you, and I think you’re trustworthy! So, once you get through my trial, I’ll tell ya! Prommy?”

“Alright, sure, ok. I don’t see why you have to make it a game though.”

Lillie spoke up.

“It’s… kind of an important secret. It changed how I see things, even.”

Pearl just let out a frustrated sigh.

“Fiiine, I can wait. But you can expect me to blaze through your trial when I get the chance because of this, Acerola.”

“Fine by me!” she said with a laugh, before jumping a little at the sound of her phone buzzing.

“Aw, I guess I better head off now if I wanna set stuff up for trial-goers… it was nice hanging out, Lillie! And I hope to see ya soon too, Pearl!”

With a wave, Acerola headed out of the hotel room.

Pearl sat down next to Lillie on the bed, and looked rather serious.

“Can you at least tell me one thing?” Pearl asked.

“Hm? What is it?”

“Acerola… she’s not like, secretly evil and manipulating you or whatever, right?”

Lillie laughed a bit.

“Oh, no way! It was just a personal secret… if she feels like she can share it with you later, I’ll leave that up to her.”

“Oooooh, okay. Sorry, I was just jumping to the worst-case scenario.” Pearl said with a chuckle.

By the next day, Pearl was a bit tired from grinding away at the trials, so Lillie and herself decided to spend the day to check out Malie’s large public zen garden.

The garden was built by Kantonian immigrants, as a little slice of their home in Alola, along with the rest of Malie city.

When Pearl and Lillie arrived, the temperature was just peaking, so the two found themselves at the ice cream vendor in the park rather quickly. While waiting for her order, Pearl looked around the plaza, and saw the back of a familiar person. Once she got her ice cream, Pearl walked over and called out.

“Hau! I didn’t think I’d see ya here!”

Hau jumped a little from the surprise, but turned his head around, revealing a smile.

“Oh, hey! Haven’t met up in a hot minute, so I guess this is a cool coincidence!”

Pearl sat down next to him, and noticed Hau’s torracat contently purring in his lap. Lillie joined the two, and the three friends caught each other up on what they’d missed since they last talked. Pearl wanted to bring up the odd creature that appeared in Aether Paradise, and if she knew Lusamine at all, but as Pearl was about to ask, Hau spoke up.

“Oh geez, what’s goin’ on over there?” he said, pointing to a crowd that had formed across the bridge to the plaza.

“Dunno. I’m not done with my ice cream though, so it’s not my problem.” Pearl replied.

Lillie, more curious than the others, stood up on top of the bench to gain extra height in attempt to look over the crowd.

“Oh, wow! I think there’s a battle!” she said.

“But… don’t people battle here all the time? Why does this one get a crowd?”

Pearl let out a sigh, as Hau nudged her. Her competitive nature couldn’t let this one slide.

“Fiiine, I’ll see what’s up.” she sighed, handing Hau her unfinished ice cream as he excitedly accepted it.

Pearl released Azul, as she’d been meaning to train him some more, and walked over to the crowd – followed by Lillie.

As the two approached and nudged their way through to see, they could spot a young trainer holding their fainted pokemon and crying. In front of them, was a hunched over man with bleached white hair – but that wasn’t what stuck out most to Pearl. It was the garish team-skull insignia ridden getup he was wearing – it was quite a bit more blatant than any grunt she’d seen.

“That’s me! Destruction in human form!! C’mon, if you want to stop me, to get me to leave… I dare ya!!”

Pearl let out a frustrated sigh. As much as she wish she could avoid these weirdos…

“Pearl… he’s a member of Team Skull, isn’t he?” Lillie whispered nervously.

“Yeah, seems like a smug loser too. Time to teach this guy a lesson.”

“Be careful-!”

Pearl raised her hand and shouted, causing the crowd around her to clear.

“You think you can just make kids cry, huh? That’s kind of a dick move, man.” she said, looking rather smug about herself.

The man looked shocked at her remark, but slowly gained an entertained look.

“Oh-hoh! Looks like we got a confident one, huh? Alright, have at me – but I won’t apologize to your mommy when you come crying to her!”

Without exchanging further words, Pearl called forwards Azul, while the man sent out a golisopod.

“Mmm…” Pearl hummed, eyeing the large bug. Azul probably wasn’t a good idea for this, because Azul was a strong water-type attacker, and Pearl knew golisopod was a water type from seeing them thrive in her ‘aunt’ Sapphire’s underwater cave.

Despite wanting to train Azul more, she called him back, favoring a better type matchup. Pearl sent out Poppy, who floated contently.

“Hah, what, can’t make up your mind?” the man said mockingly, as he commanded his golisopod to attack.

Poppy, not having time to react, took the attack – though it didn’t do much damage.

Pearl figured that Poppy was strong enough that she didn’t have to use her minimize strategy this time, and instead opted to use a new strategy she thought up.

“Poppy, use fly!” she shouted.

And so, Poppy began it’s ascent into the sky, causing the man some confusion.

“What? So you’re just gonna have ‘em ditch battle?” he said, bewildered.

The man watched as Poppy flew up higher and higher, and so did the crowd. There was a moment of silence, until suddenly, Poppy changed its interior pressure and came crashing down into the golisopod.

“AYE! What the FUCK, man?” the man shouted in surprise, causing the crowd to gasp at his loud profanity.

The golisopod was weak, but not down yet. Pearl prepared another attack, but found herself on the end of surprise as the golisopod scuttled back to the man’s pokeball. 

The man saw Pearl’s surprise and reacted smugly, as he called out a second pokemon.

“What, think I don’t got tricks up my sleeve too? Think again!” he said with a laugh, and sent out an ariados.

Pearl just snickered.

“What, like you didn’t just send out another bug type? Poppy, use fly again.”

The man looked embarrassed, which quickly shifted to anger. He commanded his pokemon to shoot fell stingers at Poppy in the air, but none could get enough distance in the sky.

Just as it had done before, once Poppy was high enough, it came crashing down into the ariados. And just as it had happened, the ariados hung on.

It hit Poppy with a critical show sneak, which hit harder than Pearl would’ve liked. Still, a shadow ball from Poppy, and the ariados was down.

The man let out a frustrated sigh, and without a word, sent his golisopod back out.

Pearl was going to let Poppy keep fighting, but noticed Azul tugging at her socks. Azul had been watching the whole time, and it seemed he wanted in on the action.

Despite her better knowledge, Pearl withdrew Poppy and let Azul onto the scene. Despite the type disadvantage, Azul was strong, and the golisopod has already been weakened by Poppy’s attack.

Thinking out her strategy, Pearl called her first move.

“Azul, sing!”

Azul sang out a lovely tune, and thankfully for Pearl, the golisopod was receptive and fell right asleep.

The man looked frustrated, but kept his tongue. He simply watched and waited for his pokemon to wake up, as Azul slowly chipped away at its energy to battle.

Suddenly, without command, Azul stopped. Both battlers looked confused, until Azul started glowing.

Pearl and the crowd watched in awe as light consumed Azul – the light grew bigger, and after a few seconds – a magnificent primarina was in Azul’s place.

Azul stretched, and looked to Pearl with a smile.

Pearl nodded, and with grandiose excitement, she shouted out;

“Azul, use sparkling aria!”

Just as the golisopod woke up, it was surrounded by shiny bubbles – which promptly and violently burst, dealing enough damage to cause the golisopod to faint.

The crowd cheered, and the man was practically seething as he called back his fainted pokemon.

“KNOW THIS! This isn’t the last time you’ll see me, you stupid trial-goer! And next time, I’m gonna kick you and your pokemon’s sorry asses! Mark my words, this isn’t Guzma’s final bow!” he shouted, before pulling up his hoodie to hide his face as he ran off.

The crowd mostly dispersed, though some trainers came up to thank Pearl, and some children wanted to pet the newly-evolved Azul.

Once the crowd had cleared enough, Lillie ran up to Pearl with a hug.

“That was amazing! With Azul and everything!” she said, visibly starry-eyed.

“Aw geez, it wasn’t that tough of a battle! Though I feel like he was holding back to a degree…”

“He probably was, to an extent.” a familiar voice said.

Lillie and Pearl turned towards the voice, to see Kukui walking towards them.

“Oh, hey professor! I didn’t know you were even here. What makes you say that, though?” Pearl asked.

“That was Guzma, the so-called ‘big boss’ of Team Skull. I imagine he was just here to be a nuisance, and didn’t expect a strong trainer to tell him to cut it out – if I recall correctly, he has more pokemon than just those two.”

“Ohhh, makes sense, I guess.” Pearl said.

“You know him?”

Kukui just sighed.

“We went through trials together, but… he had a jealous streak and we drifted apart.”

“That sorta makes sense, seeing how he acted…” Pearl replied.

The three were then joined by Hau, who seemed impressed by Azul’s evolution, immediately going towards him. He let Azul sniff his hand before giving him a pat, and turned to Pearl.

“Wow, guess you can’t carry Azul everywhere now, huh?” he said with a laugh.

“I can if I believe hard enough.” Pearl jokingly replied.

“What happened, anyways? I just heard some dude yelling and crowd noises.”

Kukui put his fist in his hand, as if struck by an idea.

“Hey, I know! Since you completed the trial up at Hokulani, why don’t I give you a ride over to Tapu Village? It’s probably too late in the day to complete the trial, but-” Kukui said, though he was cut off.

“I don’t think it’s ever too late! I doubt it’d be as creepy as my experience in the powerless observatory, even if it’s late at night.”

Kukui gave a nervous laugh.

“If you say so…! There’s no hotels in the area except for the rooms in the pokemon center, so Lillie, you can stay here if you want.”

“I think just coming for the roadtrip would be fun! Tapu Village might give me some insights into Nebby with some new information I learned…” Lillie said, looking rather confident.

“Alright, if you say so! I’m parked outside the garden, so let’s get moving!”

“Let’s goooo!” Hau said enthusiastically, getting a head start in front of the others.

The four made it to Kukui’s van, and the 3 friends sat next to each other.

Pearl pulled out her phone, and did a quick search for Tapu Village – though was shocked by what she saw.

“Woah, wait, what? I search this place up and I’m getting articles titled ‘30 years after the Tapu Village disaster’… what’s this place’s deal?”

Hau leaned over to look at the article’s picture.

“Yeah, grandpa tells me it was a real big controversy. Tapu Village used to be a small town, until they built one of those megamarts on sacred ground – which made the island’s Tapu so mad that they destroyed everything.”

“And… they still use it as a trial site?!” Pearl asked.

“Well… Acerola runs the trial. Even though she’s my friend now, she’s still a bit… ‘odd’ sometimes.” Lillie replied.

Kukui dropped into the conversation.

“I swear, that entire side of the island is no-man’s land, one incident after another. It feels like after the whole Po Town thing it went downhill. Reason why building the league on this island isn’t costing as much though!” he said with a laugh.

“Po town? I haven’t seen or heard of that town, even when looking at maps.” Pearl asked.

“There’s a reason, and it’s best you stay out of it, Pearl. They got Interpol handling it… I think.”

Despite wanting to know more, Pearl dropped the subject, and conversation drifted elsewhere.

After about an hour, the group made it to Tapu village, and Kukui pulled in to a dusty pokemon center parking lot.

“We’re here!” he said, turning off the car and hopping out.

The 3 friends exited the vehicle as well, and curiously looked around. 

The village was quiet, and no building other than the pokemon center could be seen. Or, to be more accurate, no intact buildings. As Pearl looked closer, she could notice the chilling decayed ruins of destroyed homes, almost completely leveled with only bits of wall sticking up.

“This place gives me the creeps…” Hau said, his voice filled with uncertainty.

“I, uh, might not want to stay here overnight, so I might actually just head back to Malie with you, Kukui.”

“No shame in that! You feelin’ ok about staying late, Pearl?” Kukui asked.

“Mm…” Pearl mumbled. She was unsure with Hau’s hesitation, but wanted to continue going through the trials at the pace she was going.

“I’ll be fine!”

Though, all of Pearl’s confidence quickly faded. She could hear the gravel crunching behind her, but wasn’t able to react quickly enough to…

“BOO!” Acerola shouted, causing Pearl to let out a surprised yelp, along with eliciting noises from Hau and Lillie.

Pearl turned around, and was relieved to see it was just Acerola. Lillie, however, looked upset.

“Acerola! That’s not very nice.” she said in a huff.

“Hehe, sorry! Couldn’t help but give you a creeeeeeeeepy welcome!” Acerola laughed.

“There isn’t much to see here, so I’m assuming you’re here for the trial – right, Pearl?”

“Yea, would today work? But it’s ok if it doesn’t, cuz it’s like, short notice and all.”

“Hmm… I guess I can make an exception for you! If you’d be willing to be outside here at sunset, that is.” Acerola replied, with a fiendish look.

Pearl just looked confused.

“Yea, why wouldn’t it? I’ll see you at around 7pm then?”

“It’s settled! You can ask the staff at the pokemon center for directions, but just head down the black-sand beach until you see the Thirfty Megamart!”

“Wait, the what?”

“Sooorry, gotta deal with a trialgoer now, I think! Good luck Pearl!” Acerola said suddenly, and waved as she ran off on the broken-up road.

Pearl was visibly nervous, but Kukui gave her a pat on the back.

“You’ll do great, I’m sure!” he said with a smile, though it didn’t do much to reassure Pearl.

Pearl waved as Kukui and the others hopped back in the car to drive back to Malie, and she went ahead and checked into a room in the pokemon center while she prepped for the trial. 

She was ridden with a sinking feeling that Acerola had something dastardly planned.

The walk over to the megamart was peaceful, though eerie. There was nobody around at all, but Pearl alone with her thoughts. She so desperately wanted to know what Acerola’s secret was, and why she seemed to be acting odd, but felt like she was opening some kind of can of worms while doing so. 

When Acerola spotted Pearl approaching, she gave a wave and called out.

“You’re early! Good on you! Come over here so we can get started!!”

Pearl ran up to Acerola, and examined the crumbling megamart.

“So, uh, what’s this trial’s deal, anyways? Is this even safe?” she asked.

“Pshh, I’ve been running this thing for… too long! Of course it’s safe!”

“I thought you were only 13…?”

Acerola paused.

“Don’t worry about it!” she said with a nervous grin.

“Anyways, your phone’s got a camera, yea?”

Pearl nodded, and pulled out her phone.

“That’s good! Because we’re gonna be doing some… paranormal investigation! Or, well, you will. I think you’ll be a natural, Lillie told me your aunt does this kind of stuff?”

The sinking feeling made sense now.

Pearl wouldn’t classify herself as terrified of ghost pokemon, but some of Aster’s stories of more violent or malevolent spirits were able to get to her.

If this whole town was destroyed because of this megamart, then what could the spirits inside possibly be like…?

In Pearl’s silence, Acerola continued.

“Anyways, I want you to take pictures of the odd phenomena you encounter in there! 3 pictures, to be exact, it’s all set up! Or, ‘all fake’, as you’d say.” she said, with a bit of an impish smile.

Pearl just sighed.

“Right, OK, get ghost pics, get out, get the stamp. Got it.” she said, her tone very obviously not enthused.

As Acerola creaked open the doors to the megamart, she smiled at Pearl.

“Good luck!”

Before Pearl could say anything, the doors slammed shut, leaving her in the darkness dimly lit by her phone’s flashlight.

Product was knocked off the shelves in a way that seemed to form a clear path, so Pearl started to look around for any sign of paranormal activity.

Pearl’s breathing was a bit heavy, but she had begun to rationalize the situation and calm down a bit – at least until a heavy can fell off the shelf behind her.

In shock, Pearl jolted around with her flashlight to see the large can of beans roll on the ground, as if it had been pushed with force.

Sucking in air, Pearl opened her phone’s camera and enabled an infrared mode. Low and behold, there was an anomaly floating right above the shelf where the can had once been. After snapping a picture, Pearl released Poppy from it;s pokeball and instructed it to use shadow ball directed towards the anomaly.

When the shadow ball made contact, the anomaly revealed itself to be a gastly! It seemed startled that it was located, and quickly attempted to fly away. However, Pearl was quick to command Poppy to use shadow sneak, and it caught up to the gastly before it could escape.

When the ghost fainted, the air around Pearl seemed to change. It felt heavier, and though Pearl chalked it up to her mind playing tricks, she swore she could hear giggling.

Poppy could sense Pearl was getting freaked out, so it offered her one of its arms to help comfort her, which Pearl quickly latched on to. 

She continued to walk down the perceived path, until Poppy stopped floating alongside her. It seemed to be staring at a shopping cart, which was rattling uncontrollably. Pearl jumped when she saw it, but took a deep breath and got her camera out.

As expected, there was an anomaly detected on the infrared camera inside the cart. Unlike the last anomaly, however, this one seemed to almost jump at Poppy and Pearl the moment it was photographed, catching the two off-guard. 

The anomaly this time was a haunter, and it gave Poppy some trouble as it was faster and more aggressive than the gastly. Still, Poppy was able to overpower, it and the ghost pokemon faded into thin air.

Pearl took a second to heal Poppy, but could hear some scuttling behind her. In the corner of her eye, she almost thought she could see… a pikachu? No, it couldn’t be, it must be some kind of ghost’s trick. But what kind of ghost?

Following the path of debris and scattered product, Poppy and Pearl came upon an odd sight – a group of old pokemon plushies floating in the air! Pearl was hesitant, knowing something like this would be only possible for a powerful poltergeist.

Pulling out her phone, Pearl went to take a picture – but when she did, all the plushies suddenly stopped floating, and the anomaly in the infrared view went right up to her phone. Pearl simply snapped a picture, closed her eyes, and spoke.

“I know you’re in front of me.” she said, trying to mask the terror in her voice.

She kept her eyes squeezed shut, and commanded Poppy to attack whatever ghost pokemon was tormenting her this time. Poppy let out a shadow ball, and Pearl was able to recognize the cry of a gengar.

The gengar pushed poppy to the limit even more, to the point where once it had been defeated, Pearl had to break out a max potion.

The gengar faded away, and at the very end of the trail, Pearl noticed a door in the very back, slightly ajar. She felt as though it beckoned her in a sinister way.

Attempting to swallow her fear, she tightly gripped Poppy’s arm and headed through the door.

Inside it was just a small room, no bigger than a storage closet. However, the room was covered with drawings and posters of pikachu. The drawings seemed crude, as though made by a young child, and any posters had the faces of humans scribbled out. It genuinely felt like something out of a horror movie.

Even Poppy seemed on edge, and tried to hide from something behind Pearl in the small room. When Pearl turned around to see what Poppy was so afraid of, she saw… a crude handmade pikachu plushie?

Pearl wanted to investigate it, but before she could make any movements, the plushie spoke.

“Mimi… see you?” it spoke in a raspy, almost grating voice. 

The voice seemed to hit Pearl’s very soul, and it took everything in her gut to not run away. She’d never heard or seen a pokemon like this before, but it had to be a ghost pokemon… right?

Pearl reached out to the plusie, and was nearly swiped at by a shadowy claw – if Poppy hadn’t jumped in to protect it’s trainer.

The hit seemed to be a hard one, but Poppy floated firmly in place. The plushie pokemon let out a wicked cry, and a haunter joined its side, and the totem battle officially began.

Pearl quickly opened the browser on her phone, and frantically typed her question into a search engine.

‘GHOST TYPE PIKACHU POKEMON?’

Thankfully, the online pokedex was quick to give Pearl her answer! It indeed was a pokemon, named mimikyu. All Pearl could read from the blurb was something about a ‘jealous spirit’ before her phone was swiped out of her hand by the pikachu mimic.

Frustrated, she ordered Poppy to attack with shadow ball, hoping to hit the mimikyu hard. The shadowy mass hit the pokemon, and Pearl was about to congratulate Poppy, when she noticed… the mimikyu completely shrugged it off, ad the head of it’s disguise drooped.

“What??” she whispered under her breath.

It would appear that the pokemon’s pikachu cloak served as a temporary means of protection, completely nullifying the hit from Poppy.

Pearl was mad, but she didn’t have much time to react. The haunter that the mimikyu called in landed a finishing blow on Poppy, who made a very sad deflating noise as it fainted – not without causing aftermath damage to the haunter, though.

Pearl just sighed, and recalled her pokemon. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d make her way out of this one, even moreso than her battles with previous totem pokemon.

Hesitantly, Pearl sent out Azul, who she thought would take up much of the small room… but the room almost seemed to expand to accommodate for the large pokemon’s size and provide ample space for battle.

The haunter went in to try and hypnotize Azul to sleep, but Azul avoided it by conveniently closing his eyes.

Pearl called for him to attack using sparkling aria on the haunter, hoping to get it out of the picture as soon as possible so she could focus on the much more powerful mimikyu.

The haunter took quite a bit of damage from the hit, but not enough to knock it out. This upset Pearl, so much so that she was late to order Azul to dodge the incoming shadow claw from the mimikyu.

The mimikyu was strong, and this was made evident by the fact that it was easily able to take out half of Azul’s energy with a single hit. Pearl stood her ground, but knew she was in quite the bleak situation.

The haunter went in for another hypnosis, and was successful this time around. But Azul could hear Pearl’s cries to wake up, and managed to shake himself awake and finish the haunter off. But just as soon as he woke up, he was taken down by the menacing mimikyu.

Pearl only had Cherry left now, who she’d been slacking on training and was much weaker than both Poppy and Azul. She sighed, and apologized to Cherry’s pokeball – knowing Cherry would simply be there to stall so she could get Poppy and Azul in battling condition again.

Cherry quickly fell to the mimikyu’s might, but she’d served what Pearl had sent her out to do – Poppy and Azul were back on their feet again, though not in ideal shape.

Pearl recalled a fainted Cherry, and sent out Azul.

Following Pearl’s orders, Azul used sing, but the mimikyu wasn’t receptive, and attacked with it’s claws once more. Azul was close to fainting, but Pearl knew if she managed to get it to fall asleep, she’d get the upper hand.

She commanded Azul to use sing again, and thankfully, the mimikyu fell asleep.

This was her chance!

Pearl commanded Azul to use sparkling aria until the ghost pokemon woke up, chipping away at its defenses. She was able to get it close to fainting before it woke up, and promptly dished out it’s revenge.

But it seemed like it was already over.

Pearl sent out Poppy, and commanded it to use shadow sneak – a speedy move for a speedy end to the mimikyu.

With an inhuman, ghastly scream, the mimikyu melted into the shadows, and left only its disguise behind. Pearl went to pick it up, but when she did, felt something awful tingle down her spine, so she quickly set it back down, simply opting to take a picture to prove her victory instead.

And so, with a deep breath and grip on Poppy’s arm, Pearl ran out of the megamart as fast as she could.

Outside the megamart, Acerola was waiting for her in the dimly lit parking lot, the sun having already set.

“Hey Pearl! You do good in there?” she asked.

Pearl was still huffing from running out of the megamart, but opted to try and speak before catching her breath.

“The ghosts-! The… the pikachu?? In the back room!!”

“Woah woah, slow down! I don’t know about any back room, but you got the pictures, right?” Acerola responded, looking a tad confused. She put out a hand for Pearl’s phone so she could review the pictures.

Pearl finally caught her breath, and handed Acerola her phone for her to check the camera roll.

“…What do you MEAN you don’t know of any back room?” Pearl asked, her voice echoing concern.

Acerola took a second to scroll through the pictures, before nodding with a smile and handing the phone back to Pearl.

“There’s no back room, Pearl! But that doesn’t matter, it seems like you got everything I asked of you, including proof you defeated the totem! Though I saw that already.” she said with a giggle.

“What… what do you MEAN… you SAW?!” Pearl said, this time her voice was almost exasperated.

Pearl was practically convinced that Acerola’s ‘secret’ was that she was some kind of long-lost ghost child, and was a trial captain somehow. 

But all Acerola could do was laugh.

“Suppose I should tell you my secret now, huh?” she said lightheartedly.

“I’m not sure if I want to know anymore…” Pearl mumbled.

Acerola just giggled.

“Watch closely!”

Illuminated by the flickering lights in the abandoned parking lot, Acerola did a spin – which summoned a puff of magenta smoke. When the smoke cleared, Acerola could be seen floating several feet in the air, resting atop a large golden hoop. The interior of the hoop appeared to be some kind of purple void, flowing in all directions.

“Check it out! Cool, huh?” Acerola said smugly.

“YOU’RE… YOU’RE A LEGE-” Pearl started to yell, but was cut off by Acerola, as she de-manifested the ring and hopped to the ground.

“Hey! It’s a secret! So be quiet, alright?” she said with a shushing motion.

“But yea! Call me Hoopa’s emissary, I think you guys wanting to help out that baby galaxy pokemon is neat! But… Pearl… the term ‘legend’… how do you know it, anyways?”

Pearl mumbled to herself incoherently.

She wasn’t sure if it was right to reveal herself to Acerola, but… Acerola was able to trust her with her status as emissary, so Pearl should let herself do the same, right?

“I’m…” Pearl mumbled before trailing off.

“C’mon Pearl! I can’t hear ya!”

“I’m an emissary too, I guess. The emissary of Palkia, in particular.”

“WHAAAAAAAT?! No way, you’re kidding! Prove it! I dare ya!” Acerola said, her voice reflecting shock and awe. 

Pearl sighed, but admittedly felt a bit cool that she got to show off her powers for once.

“Here, grab my hand! If that’s ok.” she said to Acerola, who did as requested.

Pearl tried to center her mind, clearing a vision of the gravel parking lot where she initially arrived at Tapu Village. She imagined the pokemon center, and it’s light shining through the darkness. And soon enough, is a cloud of sparks… she was there.

Acerola opened her eyes first, and seemed totally blown away.

“Wait, forreal?! You just… did that?!” she said, flapping her hands up and down in excitement.

“No way! Not only are you also an emissary, but you’re one that can do space stuff too?! We’re like, space buddies! This is so cool!”

Acerola seemed genuinely very excited, and Pearl was more than relieved. She’d heard horror stories from her mother of how other emissaries were often malevolent towards other emissaries, but Acerola just seemed like she had solidarity she’d wanted for a long time.

“Hey, if you don’t wanna stay at the pokecenter, I got a place you can crash for the night! It’s got comfier sheets, I promise!”

Pearl smiled and nodded.

“Sure!”

With that, Acerola summoned a ring and walked through it, and Pearl followed in suit. On the other side of the ring was a pure white building, which looked very modern compared to the older houses in Tapu Village.

“Welcome to the Aether house! This is where I live, and it’s home to other children and pokemon with no place to go!” Acerola said, as she motioned for Pearl to follow her inside.

“It’s run by the Aether Foundation, I think it was super sweet of them to set it up! Even if I was the one who convinced them to.”

Inside, Acerola and Pearl’s light mood was quickly dampened by a loudly crying child. And right next to the child, was none other than Hau and Lillie.

“Wait, you guys? What are you doing here?” Pearl asked, running up to her friends.

“And what’s even going on?”

Hau put his warms up behind his head and sighed.

“Acerola invited us just before we left, weird how she seems to disappear and reappear like that.” he said, shaking his head.

“Some Skull losers came in and stole this kid’s yungoos while Lillie and I were being given a tour, so we couldn’t stop them… now look at how things are.”

“Oooh noo, that’s terrible!” Acerola said with a gasp. 

“We haven’t had much trouble with Team Skull despite being so close to Po Town, sometimes they’d even come and help! This seems so out of character…”

“Really?” Pearl asked.

“They might market themselves as no-good punks, but really, they can do good! Even if it’s just because Uncle Nanu forces them to, hah.”

“Wait, wait, hold on. There’s so many names being thrown around. Po Town? Nanu?”

“Well, Nanu’s my uncle. But Po Town…” Acerola paused.

“It’s not really a place anybody should go. If the Skull Grunts took that yungoos back there, well…”

The child began tearing up again, and resumed crying loudly. 

Pearl couldn’t stand it.

“You know what! I’ll rescue the yungoos for you!”

“R… really?” the child said, sniffling.

Everyone else in the room looked horrified.

“Yea, how much trouble could a few Skull Grunts be? I mean, I beat their boss in battle, what could possibly go wrong?”

“Pearl…” Hau mumbled.

“Here, can I talk to you in another room?”

Pearl nodded, looking a bit confused. She followed Hau into a playroom, where he looked very serious.

“Look, Pearl, I know you… kind of have an ego, but you really don’t wanna mess with Po Town. There’s a reason it’s not on any maps.”

“Hey, chillax Hau! I’ll be fine!”

“No, Pearl, this is what I mean! You think you’re invincible, and this is something not even Interpol messes with! As your friend, I’m not letting you go.”

“And how are you going to stop me?”

Hau let out a frustrated sigh and took one one of his pokeballs.

“You need to learn when to let things go, sometimes.”

The battle was quick, yet heated. Pearl was upset with how the person she’d considered her best friend for years was acting, and didn’t hold back in battle – and swiftly defeated Hau.

Hau looked upset and frustrated as well, but didn’t say anything.

“I’m going.” was all Pearl said as she left the now messy playroom.

When she returned to the building’s lobby, everyone looked concerned.

“Pearl, are you alright? Where’s Hau” Lillie asked.

“It’s fine. I’m gonna go to Po Town and get that yungoos back.” Pearl responded, though her tone of voice was almost uncharacteristic.

“Mm, alright. But… be careful!” Acerola said.

With that, Pearl walked out the door into the night.

Next Chapter