🌙Moon – Chapter 12; uh oh sisters (part 2)

Read from the start

Characters: Pearl, Lillie, Hau, Guzma, Gladion, Lusamine, Faba, Wicke, Nanu, Emmy/Renee

AN:

AUGHHHHHHHHHH [EXPLODES] ITS DONE

5 months passes fast, huh? ive been super out of it since i last wrote moon but im trying to get my life together. maybe. also ive been a bit too preoccupied with ultra arc stuff sorry pearl :p

but yea More Drama:tm:! i promise ill try and make next chapter a bit lighter mood-wise. i very clearly have ‘pearlillie confession moments’ written in the outline for that.

this is a lot more lightly revised than normal simply because im lazy. sorry

ALSO 50K WORDS WE FINALLY DID IT GOTDAMN

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The boat ride seemed eternally long, but over in an instant as well. In no time, the crew arrived. Despite the Aether Foundation’s docks being closed initially, Nanu honked the boat’s horn – and the gates were opened.

Pearl assumed that whoever was manning the gates saw that the boat belonged to Team Skull and trusted them to enter.

Nanu parked in an out-of-the-way spot, and the trio hopped out.

“I’ll pretend I’m not here. Don’t want to cause a fuss in things I know nothing about.” he said gruffly, leaning back in the captain’s seat and propping up his legs.

“But couldn’t we use your help? You’re the Kahuna, after all!” Pearl replied.

“Look, kid – once these people see an old man like me is involved, the stakes are going to get unbelievably high. I don’t take other people’s word lightly – Acerola has faith in the power of you three, despite your age.”

“He’s right – if they see someone like Nanu here, everything is going to get locked down more than it already is. We only call him if it’s a last resort, remember?” Gladion said in response.

Pearl, while still concerned, nodded.

“I suppose you’re right. Nobody would suspect a bunch of teenagers, I guess.”

The group said their goodbyes to Nanu as they parted ways, and Gladion explained his plan to Pearl and Hau.

“There’s a code I know that will take the elevator that normally goes to the pavilion to a secret laboratory level. We should split up to get there – if any guards see you two with me, it’s game over. Try to not get spotted, but if you do, figure it out.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Hau asked, but Galdion was already sneaking off with Type-Null. Hau just sighed.

“I guess this really is like a spy mission…”

Pearl gave him a pat on the back.

“We’ll… do fine! There’s tons of crates around here we can use for cover.” she said, releasing Cherry from her pokeball.

“Cherry, I’m gonna need your help for this one – you’re still small enough so I can carry you.”

Hand in hand, Pearl and Hau crouched behind crate after crate as quietly as they could. They could hear footsteps around them, but neither of them felt like checking to see who was there.

Things were going smoothly, up until Pearl tripped over herself and landed on the ground with an ‘ow’.

“Who’s there?!” a voice shouted upon hearing the noise.

Pearl and Hau panicked, not knowing what to do. They’d already been caught, so there was no point in trying to stay hidden.

Pearl and Hau stood up, revealing themselves fully.

“Hello?” was all Pearl could say, as she tried to think a way out of the situation.

“Ah, geez, thought we kicked all the visitors out already. How the hell are you kids still here?” the Aether employee said.

For a second, Pearl felt a sort of relief – their ruse as just ‘some kids’ had worked. But then she noticed the employee squint a bit in her direction, then…

“Wait…” they said, as it was evident they were thinking.

“I think my boss told me to watch out for you! Some teenager with a big yellow bow!”

“…Shit.” was all that Hau could say under his breath.

The employee fumbled to grab their radio, but in an act of muddled quick thinking, Pearl threw Cherry in their direction to distract them.

The employee yelped as their radio fell to the ground upon Cherry’s impact, and Hau and Pearl prepared for battle.

“Hey, what the hell?! I’m just one guy, why do both of you have to gang up on me like this?!” the employee cried, reaching for pokeballs of their own.

The battle was short, as the employee was no match for Pearl and Hau’s combined prowess.

After the battle, however… something seemed off about Cherry.

“Cherry… are you alright?” Pearl asked, though Cherry was unresponsive.

Looking closer at Cherry, Hau chimed in.

“You think that pushed her over the threshold to evolve? She looks like she’s saving energy.”

“It’s the middle of the night though! I thought fomantis only evolved during the day?”

The two wouldn’t have time for further deliberation, however – as Cherry was quickly consumed by a bright light.

The outline of the light grew taller, before it finally burst out in a flash – and the newly evolved Cherry let out a loud, excited cry.

Pearl wanted to be excited, but…

“Huh, I guess the artificial UV in the lights here must’ve done it.” the employee scoffed.

“With a cry like that though… I bet now everyone knows there’s an intruder here!”

Pearl let out a frustrated sigh, but ultimately tried her best to keep her cool. Despite her frustration, she still gave Cherry a pat on the heat for a job well done.

The two friends had to move quickly. There was no point in being sneaky anymore, as they had already been discovered.

They tried to move as quickly as they could, but Pearl found Cherry was frequently lagging behind – so she recalled her to her pokeball and released Poppy to be with her instead.

Pearl and Hau were stopped by 2 groups of employees on their way to the elevator – one of 3, and a large group of 5. Despite being outnumbered both times, the friends were able to emerge victorious and keep moving.

Upon finally making it to the elevator, the two could see that Gladion was already there – and he looked frustrated.

“God, finally. I don’t even want to ask what you two got into, but the whole facility is on high alert now – things are going to be a whole lot harder and we don’t have much time.”

“Sorry! Cherry just got too excited when she evolved…”

Gladion just sighed.

“Whatever. We’re going down, let me enter the code.”

The elevator emitted quiet beeps as Gladion entered the code to the secret laboratory level – and just as the elevator began its descent, the trio could see a group of security employees turn the corner and run towards them.

Thankfully, they were out of reach. But at this point, the weight of the situation was hitting Pearl harder than ever.

After about 30 seconds, the elevator stopped, and the three exited into a dimly lit, industrial looking room – only to be greeted by Faba.

“Well well, looks like the rats found their way down here after all…” he said with a smug air in his voice.

“Unfortunately, I believe that y… what are you doing?”

Faba pointed to Hau, who appeared to be grabbing something from his bag.

“Oh, nothing much – how fast are you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me – now start running!”

With an impish smile, Hau released his incineroar. The pokemon let out a roar, then nodded towards Hau – before charging towards Faba.

Faba yelped, and ran off in the opposite direction as the big cat chased him – it wasn’t running fast enough to actually catch him, but still fast enough to actually freak him out.

Hau had trouble collecting himself from his laughter, and Pearl was having trouble keeping it in as well. Surprisingly, he was even able to get a smile out of Gladion.

“That guy always gave me weird vibes – we got a distraction now!” Hau said.

“You guys go ahead – I’ll make sure Faba or nobody else gets in your way!”

Pearl and Gladion nodded, and Gladion motioned for Pearl to follow him deeper into the dimly lit lab hallway.

It was eerie, and all the lights glowed a slight green hue as the two could hear the sounds of the ocean around them.

“Pearl, how good are you with computers?” Gladion stopped to ask.

“Hmm, I’d say I’m decent? Like in what way?”

“Nothing too advanced, I just need you to search for some things.”

“Oh, totally, then! I learned a lot of that stuff while watching my mom work as a kid.”

Gladion nodded, and they walked until they stopped in front of a door, which he opened. 

It was a small office, with about a dozen kennels lining the far wall, next to what appeared to be a test chamber.

Gladion checked the computer, and let out a hushed noise of victory as he realized Faba had left the computer unlocked.

“Bingo – it’s open!” he said.

“Alright, I need you to stay here Pearl – I’m going to search deeper. See if you can find anything on that computer, and if you find anything truly incriminating about where they’re keeping Lillie, text me.”

“But what about Lillie…! You just want me to stay here while you tackle who knows what on your own?”

“I just don’t want more people to get hurt.”

Gladion left the office, leaving Pearl with a dumbfounded expression. Still, Pearl quickly hopped on the swivel chair and got to work.

Faba’s desktop was… crowded, but in an organized way. There were simply a lot of files – most with inconspicuous names that would make searching difficult.

Pearl let out a deep sigh, and started clicking around.

She kept running into asset and income reports, and even a quick skim over them proved evident that Aether was going very well.

While skimming a report for any bit of info, Pearl was caught off guard by a familiar ping noise – but it wasn’t from her own phone.

It appeared that someone had messaged Faba, and so Pearl switched her tab to snoop. 

It was… an Aether Foundation group chat? Pearl took a second to think about the fact that they even had a group chat, before checking the ping.

The people of interest have breached the docks, possibly the inner lab – get yourselves in order now! @everyone !!

Pearl felt a bit smug, knowing that she was a ‘person of interest’ – even if the attention wasn’t inherently the most positive. Having her power be recognized on such a scale… it was something Pearl has dreamed of.

But she had to snap out of it – there was a bigger issue at hand. She figured that with how eager the group chat was to ping everyone for a breach, there must be some info.

The group chat had many, many channels – almost an excessive amount. After scrolling through, Pearl was able to find the high-ranking staff channels, which Faba was included in. There, after a bit more scrolling, Pearl’s heart dropped.

Taking Lillie and the cosmog to the backroom. If any breaches happen, prevent entry at all costs. If you screw this up you’re all fired.

The backroom?

Pearl wondered if they were even looking in the right place – was the ‘backroom’ down in the lab or somewhere else?

>>gladion? are you there

There was an uncomfortably long wait for a response.

>Did something happen? Did you find something?

>>there’s a message that says lillie is in the ‘backroom’… is that down here?

>Shit.

There was no response after that, leaving Pearl on edge – until Gladion burst through the office in a hurry, panting.

“Gladion! What happened! Don’t just leave me on read like that!”

“She’s not here!” he gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

“The mansion! There’s a secret room! She…”

“Gladion, take a sec to breathe, ok! We still have time, I think.”

Gladion took a second to breathe, before fixing his posture and facing Pearl.

“This is serious, I have no idea what she’s planning…” he said with a serious tone.

“The backroom is something even I’m lucky to know about – it’s top secret and nothing tends to leave there unless it’s Lusamine.”

“Ah…” Pearl mumbled.

“I guess we should do our best to hurry then – and if I gotta, I can… brute force things.”

“I imagine you could, I’ve seen you in battle – just keep sharp, my mother has all kinds of tricks not limited to the battlefield.”

Pearl nodded, and followed Gladion out the office, to the elevator room – where they could see Faba tied with an extension cord to a chair, with Hau’s incineroar guarding.

“Lillie’s not down here?” Hau asked, looking a bit distraught.

“We need to move – she’s probably in the most secret part of the facility, and who knows what’s happening there.”

Hau nodded, and recalled his pokemon as he joined Pearl and Gladion on the elevator.

“WAIT!! You aren’t going to leave me here… right?!”

Pearl gave him a nyeh gesture, though she was bonked by the side of Gladion’s hand to cut it out as the elevator doors closed.

“The backroom is connected to the mansion on this island… the entrance is hidden in plain sight. But knowing what I saw when I discovered it… I have a very, very bad feeling about this.” Gladion said with a worried sigh.

“Hey, Gladion.” Hau spoke up.

“It’s gonna be ok, alright? You got us with you. No matter what, we’ll make sure Lillie’s ok.”

Though Gladion was deep in worried thought, even he didn’t seem immune to Hau’s reassuringly big smile.

The elevator ride was longer than the first one, but once it stopped and the doors opened, a blast of tropical sea air uncharacteristic of the Aether Foundation’s artificial climate was a nice refresher. The three appeared to be outside now.

In front of them was a walkway, with a large, white mansion at the end – but between the elevator and the mansion, was what seemed to be a small army of Team Skull grunts.

And they had just realized the three had arrived.

Though seemingly confused and disorganized, the grunts quickly moved to form a blockade around the elevator – and like clockwork, the trio each released a pokemon, indicating they weren’t willing to let this go without a fight.

“This area wouldn’t be so heavily guarded without a reason… show no restraint! We need to get in there!” Gladion shouted, as he called for Type Null to begin battling the onslaught of the grunt’s pokemon.

Some of the grunts seemed confused by Gladion’s presence, moreso by him working against them. Still, they tried to hold their ground as best they could.

But even all the grunts were no match for Gladion, Pearl, and Hau. By the time they got to the last row of grunts, those who were holding the back simply surrendered.

“Hey, what the fuck? It’s just some kids!! Stop being a bunch of cowards!”

The voice was unmistakably Guzma’s.

Pearl noticed that Gladion tensed up a bit, but still held his ground.

“Oh, you’re here.” Guzma huffed, crossing his arms and glaring daggers towards Gladion.

“I told ya to keep your nose out of this, kid!”

“Unfortunately, it’s my sister – so all this is my business.” Gladion replied, pointing in Guzma’s direction.

“Now, Type Null, make this quick.”

Guzma smirked, and Hau’s face quickly turned worried.

“Gladion, don’t you wanna heal first? Type Null looks really beat up, I’m not sure if…”

“Quiet.”

Gladion seemed dead serious, completely brushing Hau off. Hau gave a frustrated sigh as he turned to heal Pearl’s pokemon, along with his own instead.

Gladion and Guzma’s pokemon clashed hard, but in the end, the previous damage that Type Null had taken allowed Guzma’s golisopod to overpower it easily.

Gladion looked horrified, recalling Type Null to its pokeball – and Guzma just let out a crazed laugh.

“You see, kid?! I’m destruction in human form!! I’m untouchable, especially for someone of the likes of you!” he said with a growl.

“My pity for you’s run out, kid. You’re just a wannabe like the rest of the grunts. Go run back now – get out of my sight!”

Gladion stepped back in recoil, and though he was doing his best to maintain his ‘cool’ composure, it was plain to see he was on the verge of tears.

Pearl couldn’t let it stand.

“Hey, what the FUCK is your problem, dude?”

Guzma, despite his usual choice of words, seemed taken aback by Pearl’s profanity.

“Watch it! You think you’re oh-so strong, but listen up! The big lady here did her thing and beefed up my pokemon from last time! So don’t try any shit, you’re not getting past me!”

Pearl puffed up her stance a bit.

“That’s what you think!”

Pearl sent out Poppy, and Guzma scoffed.

Still, without a word, he sent his golisopod forwards as well.

Though it was a bit tougher thanks to whatever Lusamine did with Guzma’s pokemon, the strategies Pearl had used in her previous battles with Guzma held firm.

One after another, Guzma’s expression grew more frustrated as Pearl downed his pokemon.

“GOD. DAMN IT.” he yelled out, as his pinsir fell to the ground – his final pokemon.

“You’re wasting your fucking time! It’s too late already!”

“It’s over when Lillie is safe!”

“You really are stupid, aren’t you? Whatever. Let your shitty youthful idealism lead the way, kid.”

Guzma stepped out of the way and sat on the side of the walkway, head in his hands.

“Alright! We’re almost there! Come on!!” Pearl shouted.

And though Hau was quick to follow behind her, Gladion was frozen still. When Pearl turned to notice Gladion wasn’t following, she stopped.

“Gladion… aren’t you coming with us?”

“No, I… fuck.” he sighed.

“I’m too weak. I’ll only drag you down.”

“That’s not true, Gladion! Don’t let what Guzma said take you down!”

“And yet you mowed him down so easily! I’ll only weigh you two down… I need a moment.”

“Gladion…”

Pearl wanted to comfort him, but Hau tugged on her arm.

“C’mon Pearl, we’re so close…! Gladion can’t make it, but we can!”

Pearl sighed and nodded, as she moved towards the mansion with Hau.

Just as they were about to open the front doors, someone opened them.

It was Wicke, and Pearl instinctively tensed up – expecting another person to battle. But… Wicke just looked incredibly worried.

“Here, here, come in.” she said in a hurried manner.

Pearl and Hau gave each other a confused glance, before following Wicke inside.

The inside of the mansion was just as completely white as the outside, with minimalist decor.

“Let me heal your pokemon fully…” Wicke said, reaching towards a duffle bag full of full restores on the floor.

“Woah, where’d you get all that?” Hau asked, shocked.

“It was intended for the Skull blockade, but I figure you two will get much better use of it, given what’s up ahead…”

“What’s up ahead?” Pearl asked.

“Where Lusamine is hiding with Lillie…” Wicke sighed.

“I was intended to stop you, but… I can’t stand this anymore. I don’t care if I get a pay cut or fired or worse, I need Lillie to be safe.”

“Do you know where they are? In the backroom or something?”

“Yes, I can give you two access. But once you’re in… I’m afraid I can’t do anything. It’ll be up to you.” Wicke replied.

“But… seeing how you battled… and how dedicated you are to protect Lillie… I think you’ll both be able to hold your own.”

Pearl and Hau nodded, and after healing their pokemon, followed Wicke out of the foyer, into a hall, and into a bedroom. Inside the bedroom, Wicke approached a bookshelf, and pressed in a few books in a certain order.

Suddenly, the bookshelf moved to the side, revealing a dimly lit, cramped secret elevator.

“It’s up to you now. Good luck.” Wicke said with a nod.

Hau and Pearl nodded back, and did their best to fit comfortably in the small elevator.

It appeared to go down, below sea level like the lab.

Once the elevator finally stopped, the two friends were greeted with air that was even more harshly air conditioned than the rest of the Aether foundation.

And there, sitting on the ground a distance away, was Lillie.

And Lusamine.

It took a second for anyone to notice Pearl and Hau, but when Lillie caught sight of them, she visibly started to panic – waving her arms in a ‘do not cross’ motion.

Though Lusamine was turned the other way, she noticed Lillie’s waving.

“What are you doing?” she asked, before turning in the direction that Lillie was facing and noticing Pearl and Hau at the other end of the long walkway.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Her tone seemed completely different from the first time Pearl had encountered her – it was cold and foreboding.

Pearl and Hau ran up the walkway to confront her, but Lusamine was snappy to release one of her pokemon to form a blockade – a clefable.

“You two aren’t moving any closer. I can’t afford for my life’s work to get ruined by some children.”

“I don’t know what you’re planning with Lillie, or Nebby, or anyone… but I’m going to make you cut it out!!” Pearl said in a determined tone, keeping her confident stance.

Lusamine let out a condescending laugh in response.

“My, you’re enthusiastic! Well, I suppose your poor ‘Nebby’ has some more time to finish charging – I can play around for a bit.”

“What?” Pearl asked, her interest caught by the mention of ‘charging’.

But Lusamine didn’t answer – she simply set the odd briefcase she was carrying on the ground and ordered her clefable to make its first attack – directed at Pearl and Hau.

Hau was able to pull Pearl out of the way in time, as Pearl struggled to fish out a pokeball.

“Hau! Make sure Lillie is ok! I’ll handle this!”

“Are you sure?!”

Pearl was about to respond, but had to think fast as clefable’s onslaught continued – she sent out Poppy, as she felt Poppy could deal with heavy hits the best.

“GO!!” Pearl yelled, shoving Hau out of the way of the battle.

Though he looked concerned, Hau took Lusamine’s distraction as a chance and ran towards Lillie.

For being such a soft, round, and gentle-looking pokemon, clefable was incredibly menacing and powerful.

Still, Poppy was able to manage fairly well, and downed the clefable before it was able to summon a devastating move with metronome. 

Lusamine scoffed, but didn’t slow her pace as she quickly sent out her next pokemon – lilligant.

Unlike the clefable, this lilligant was faster – and was a bit hard for Poppy to hit, especially after it managed to paralyze it. 

Pearl wanted to heal her pokemon, but felt as though Lusamine was intentionally being so ruthless as to not give Pearl any chance but to attack.

Despite its paralysis, Poppy was able to break through enough to swiftly deal with the lilligant – it was no match for the type disadvantage.

Poppy was looking really tired, and Pearl was about to recall them… but Lusamine’s barrage continued – this time with a real cause for concern.

Mismagius.

With Poppy paralyzed and already with a sizeable amount of sustained damage, all Pearl could do was watch as an almost bullet-like shadow ball hit Poppy in the face.

Poppy deflated with a bone chilling screech, which seemed to affect the mismagius in a damaging way.

Right, aftermath.

Pearl told Poppy they did a good job and recalled her fainted pokemon to its pokeball for safety.

Pearl had to quickly decide on the best course of action here, and decided to send out Azul.

Azul’s high special attacking power proved to be a good choice, as well as too much for the mismagius to handle.

And while Lusamine was quick to send out her next pokemon, it was plain to see she was starting to get frustrated. Still, no words were exchanged between the battlers, as Pearl was too busy trying to not slow down to give any snarky remarks.

Next was milotic – a pokemon Pearl herself was quite familiar with, due to it being her uncle’s companion. She’s always seen it as a graceful and kind pokemon, not like… this.

More importantly, she has no idea how fast it could be.

Ever since Azul had reached his final evolution, he’d struggled to move on land swiftly – which was suddenly becoming a problem. Still, Azul stood firm. The milotic only seemed to be a water-type attacker, which he was able to brush off. It also helped that the milotic’s hydro pumps took so long to charge that Azul was able to predict and dodge much more easily.

With milotic down, Lusamine only had one pokeball left. It looked like she wanted to say something, but Lusamine remained silent as she sent out her final pokemon – bewear.

Pearl has heard stories about how bewear was a very dangerous pokemon, so she braced herself for the worst. But Azul looked confident, smug almost.

The bewear started charging towards Azul, and Azul sang a sweet melody almost unbothered. Slowly, the bewear’s pace faltered, as it collapsed onto the floor – asleep.

There, it was essentially at Azul’s mercy – and after Poppy’s defeat, Azul wasn’t feeling particularly merciful for any of Lusamine’s pokemon.

The sleeping pokemon didn’t take Azul’s moonblasts well, and found itself out of energy to battle by the time it had woken up.

“Tch.” was all Lusamine could muster, as she recalled her final pokemon.

“Alright, jig’s up, Lusamine! Hand back Nebby, wherever they are, and cut it out!”

There was a pause, before Lusamine broke out into maniacal laughter.

“You really think a measly pokemon battle would do anything?!” she said in between her laughing bouts.

“It’s too late, Pearl. I’ve already won.”

Pearl didn’t know how to react, but she wouldn’t have to. Her attention was soon drawn by the odd-looking briefcase that Lusamine set down starting to shake violently, glowing a bit.

Something deep in Pearl’s soul felt off. Something she couldn’t explain, something that almost felt like the tearing of space itself.

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light and a noise that sounded like a flat tone – as a massive hole in reality, similar to the one Pearl had seen at her first visit to Aether – appeared behind Lusamine.

“This world is impure. It’s not beautiful. And it’s full of filthy humans who don’t understand like you.” Lusamine said, her tone flat.

“I’m done with this world – it’s time for me to forge something better.”

The violent rumbling of the briefcase continued, as it let out a series of bright flashes.

All of a sudden, Guzma exited the elevator, panting as he ran.

“Now wait a fuckin’ second! You promised me you’d take me with you, you bitch!” he yelled, running past Pearl towards Lusamine.

But Guzma tripped on the briefcase, crashing into Lusamine – and sending both of them through the wormhole.

Though the words she said became garbled as she fell into it, the malicious expression Lusamine had was burned into Pearl’s memory.

Did she… fail?

Due to Guzma’s tripping, the briefcase had also fallen over and popped open – the wormhole, shaking, and flashing all abruptly stopped as a strange creature with rings around its body rolled out of confinement.

And all was quiet – at least for a moment.

It seemed that the tension in the air finally got to Lillie, who started wailing loudly and completely breaking down.

Pearl just felt dizzy. It was hard to keep standing up, until suddenly…

“Pearl!!” Hau cried, as Pearl fell unconsciously to the floor, caught by Azul.

==

It was another slow morning, as Emmy was watching the morning programs – Izzy cuddled on her lap, a rare occasion.

“Augh, I think we’re out of cereal, I’m sorry. I can go out to get some later, I don’t have work today.” Renee said as she walked out of the kitchen, looking a bit disappointed. She had made a coffee for herself, though.

“Ooh, I can come with you! It’s been too long since we’ve properly gotten groceries anyways.” Emmy replied to her wife with a smile, as Renee gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Renee turned to the television to watch as well, though a bright red banner at the bottom of the screen popped up that caused Emmy to freeze.

“What’s that? Sorry, I don’t have my glasses on.”

Emmy didn’t respond, and simply flipped the channel to the global news.

“This is an emergency alert for the Alola region and any individuals who wish to attempt to travel there – unidentified glowing lights have appeared in the sky en masse, and some are claiming that unidentifiable creatures are emerging. For your safety, please ensure you stay inside a locked building and do not engage.”

The mug Renee was holding shattered as it hit the floor.

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