Lillie and Sophocles walked out of the pokemon school together. "Wow, thanks for helping me make fake cigars Lillie," Sophocles said. He took one of the candy-coated papers and sucked on it, then puffed out fake smoke. "We've always wanted candy cigars."
"Toge!" togedemaru agreed as it blew out smoke like its trainer.
Lillie smiled. "No problem, I'm happy to help."
"Vul," snowy agreed.
The two trainers and their pokemon continue walking, but Sophocles saw something that made him stop. "Huh?" he said. "Is that Lana?"
Lillie followed the young boy's eyes to see her blue-haired friend, sitting in a rolly chair and looking sadly into the water. "But it's too late for Lana to still be here," she said.
"We should go see what's wrong."
Lillie and the two pokemon nodded in agreement. All four walked over to the water type trainer.
"Hey, Lana, what's wrong?" Sophocles asked.
She sighed. "Sometimes, do you ever wish that you could just jump into Wela Volcano."
The two trainers take a step back from the sitting one in shock. "What?!" Lillie exclaimed.
"What are you talking about?" Sophocles asked.
Lana paused, leaving an awkward silence. It broke when she let out a forced fake laugh. "Just kidding, I'm fine."
Sophocles and Lillie exchanged glances, knowing their friend was lying through her teeth.
"Lana, why don't you go home? I can give you a ride," Lillie suggested.
"And I can walk you home if you want," Sophocles added.
The water trainer sighed again. "No, I just don't want to do anything. I just want to sit here on this chair forever. There's no point in going home; there's no point in anything really."
The blondes got even more concerned. "Lana," Sophocles started but some unknown laughter interrupted him.
Sophocles and Lillie looked behind them to see an old, completely bald man with a mustache. He wore round glasses and military like attire. "My partner and I think that you Ultra Guardians are weak and stupid. I'll take you out with a pokebattle and then my team, the axis powers, will rule Alola, and soon every region!"
"We can't pokebattle right now, we have to help out our friend," Lillie said.
The man glared at them. "I am one of your future leaders, Tojo Hideki. You will battle me!" He threw up a pokeball to show a minior, still in its meteor form. "Minior, use self destruct!"
"Minior," it said. It dove towards the shocked Vulpix and Togedemaru, then exploded. The three pokemon flew away from each other, severely injured. Each trainer went to their respective pokemon.
"Snowy, are you alright?" Lillie asked.
"Vulpix," it replied angrily but determined.
"Toge," the electric type pokemon said in a similar tone.
"Minior, return." In a red light, the fainted pokemon was taken back. Out of two more balls came an octillery and sharpedo. "Now, are you pathetic Ultra Guardians going to just let me faint you this easily." He laughed. "You're more stupid than I thought!"
The two trainers scowled at Tojo. "Fine, we'll battle! And we'll finish you off fast so we can help out Lana even faster!" Sophocles yelled. "Go togedemaru!"
"Go snowy! Use powder snow on that octillery!"
"Use zing zap on that sharpedo!"
The pokemon listened to their trainers. Snowy's attack wasn't very effective while Togedemaru's was super effective, but the sharpedo's rough skin hurt the roly-poly pokemon even more.
"Oh no, Togedemaru, I didn't mean too!"
"Like I said," Tojo gloated, "you may own a lot of fancy land, but you're stupid! Sharpedo, use surf! Octillery, use rock blast on that city stealing ice pokemon!"
Four rocks flew from the octopus's mouth, landing super effective hits each time. Next, a tsunami of water sprayed out of the shark pokemon, hurting all three other pokemon around it. This was the last attack that lead to Snowy fainting.
"Oh no! Snowy!" Lillie yelled. She fell to her knees and scooped up the fainted ice type. Tears appeared in her eyes as the fox lied limp in her hands. "I-I'm sorry…"
Lana rolled in her chair a little closer to Lillie. "Life sucks, doesn't it? It's all pain and suffering and there's only one way to stop it: stopping life itself."
"Lana, please stop," Lillie said through tears.
Sophocles saw how miserable his friends were, and turned back to the man. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE US ALONE!"
"Alola will become a part of the axis!" Tojo yelled back.
"No, it won't!" The electric trainer sent out charjabug to make the numbers even again. He yelled out moves to his nearly fainted and newly brought out pokemon, and Tojo yelled out counter attacks.
While that went on, Lana's popplio jumped out of the water with something shining in its mouth. It hopped onto its trainer's lap and set down the item it was carrying. "Pop?" it asked hopefully.
A small smile cracked onto Lana's face. "A pearl, how nice."
She was still admiring the treasure her pokemon found for her when Togedemaru fainted, leaving only charjabug, who was now injured. Both Octillar and Sharpedo were knocked out too.
The shine of the pearl shined off of Tojo's glasses as he finally noticed Lana. Smirking at how great his plan is, Tojo sent out a mantine.
Despite having a type advantage, Sophocles knew that a mantine with that high of a level, and that high of a special defense stat, would faint his charjabug before it could get fainted itself, and that still left two more pokeballs on Tojo's belt.
He looked pleadingly at Lana. "Can you please help me? Your pokemon is really strong, and all of Alola, and maybe even other regions are at sake!"
Lana shook her head, still looking at the pearl. "I'd rather not. I'm all the way over here and this seems like your issue anyway."
Even when anticipating defeat, Sophocles continued the battle. "Charjabug, discharge!"
"Charja."
The attack hit the floating pokemon, but it basically brushed it off. The smirk on Tojo's face grew as he pointed at Lana. "Seed bomb."
Before anyone could react, the mantine flew across the water type trainer and seed bombed the pearl, ricocheting it into the harbor.
Sophocles and Lillie looked at their friend in worry. Shadows covered her face completely as she looked at the floor. She clenched her fists on the arms of her chair. "You shouldn't have done that," she hissed.
Tojo laughed. "Oh really?" he asked sarcastically. He returned the mantine and lifted a new ball. "You really think you can beat me! Go Hiroshima!"
"Feebas!" the fish pokemon named Hiroshima yelled after it appeared.
Lana stood up, her face still shadowed over. "Definitely. I have something much more powerful than that." She lifted her arm, her Z ring with waterium Z on it sent a stroke of fear into Tojo. "Hydro vortex!"
"Popplio!" her pokemon called in response. The two made the movements, creating a huge whirling current that swallowed the target with full force, destroying it completely.
"Hiroshima!" Tojo yelled in sorrow as he returned it. He threw up his last two balls, re-releasing the mantine and now releasing a magikarp. "Mantine, Nagasaki, let's end this war!"
Lana lifted her arm again. "Hydro vortex!"
"Pop!"
Tojo's squinty eyes widened. "B-but you can only use a Z-move once!"
Lana smiled. "Maybe to you, since you can't even use it once, but this is motHERFIGHTING LANA! DON'T MESS WITH ME OR I'LL FAINT ALL OF YOUR POKEMON, NO MATTER WHAT! HYDRO VORTEX!"
She did the movements, popplio mimicking them, and Nagasaki fell to the same fate as Hiroshima.
Now with Lana's help, Sophocles won the war easily. Tojo ran away, dropping some money and a retreat paper as he left.
"Wow Lana, that was great!" Sophocles rejoiced.
"Do you feel better?" Lillie asked, seeing her friend was smiling again.
Lana nodded. "Yep. Nothing gets you out of a depression like a good, old fashioned pokebattle, no matter how great."
Author's note: review.