Moon had always loved the falling rain. Sure, most kids wouldn't dream of trying to go outside in the dreary weather, but that had never stopped Moon. There were plenty of fun things to do in the rain. You could jump in puddles, catch raindrops on your tongue, heck, Moon was especially fond of singing and dancing the to song "Singing in the Rain" in weather like this! Besides, today she wasn't the only one dancing in the rain. Even if the others were performing their odd hip hop signs or whatever they called them.
In all honesty, Moon didn't know why she had come to Po Town. She wasn't too fond of battling and she had no reason to join Team Skull, after all. She had one Pokemon, a Shuppet her father had caught for her, but it wouldn't put up much of a fight against any of the stronger grunts. She giggled at the thought of losing to one of them. They always acted so tough, but they were just so silly! Why did her parents and friends think they were such a big deal? Moon wasn't scared of them at all!
That was why she was here now, studying the hole in the foundation of Po Town's outer wall. She wouldn't have ever known this was here if Shuppet hadn't floated over here and shown her an odd bush hiding it. Going in sounded really tempting. There was no one outside who could see her crawling in, and she could just hide from anyone inside. Moon was really thin and small for her age, so she could hide pretty much anywhere!
The young girl shivered. Standing in the rain for this long was making her cold. Oh well, she supposed she could warm up with a little bit of sneaking around Po Town. Moon dropped to the ground, laughing as mud splashed onto her clothes. Even more mud got on her clothes as she pulled herself through the hole in the wall. She looked around when she made it out. Po Town was just as ruined as everybody said! All the houses were worn down and there was a big mansion covered in spray paint! Shuppet, having followed Moon through the wall, tried to float away in excitement. Moon grabbed onto Shuppet's cloth to pull it back before it could be seen.
"We have to stay hidden, Shuppet," Moon whispered to the ghost. Shuppet grinned mischievously, giggling as circled Moon's head. "Oh, I get it. You really like all the negative emotion here, right?" Shuppet paused to nod. "Well, make sure you don't let me get caught, okay? Try to distract anyone who get's too close, got it?" Shuppet laughed as it flew off into the street. Someone screamed in surprise. Moon laughed. That silly Shuppet!
The intruder stayed close to the wall, hiding behind houses or bushes when the grunts started looking in her direction. She was nearly caught by a sentry hanging out on top of a truck, but Shuppet scared him bad enough to make him fall right off! This adventure was so fun! She couldn't wait to tell all of her friends about it when she got home.
Moon slipped in some mud, knocking a over a ladder leaned up against a house. Whoops! It made such a loud clang when it fell, too! Some people started shouting. Scared out of her wits, Moon pulled herself through the broken window on the house the ladder had been leaning up against. She landed with a hard thud, but hurried to roll behind some old furniture so no one would see her. Someone was running to see what caused the commotion. For the first time since she had found that hole, Moon's heart was pounding in fear. What would they do if they found her?
"Yo, it came from over here!" a male's voice called out. Moon slammed her eyes shut. If you couldn't see them, they couldn't see you, right? No, that was stupid. Closing her eyes wouldn't help anything.
"Dude, that ladder was old. It was gonna fall sometime, man," a different voice replied. This one didn't sound very happy.
"But look, yo! There's skid marks right here! You can't tell me that something didn't knock it over!"
The other sighed. "Probably just some newbie fooling around. Who the hell would mess around in Team Skull property, anyway?" It sounded like they were going to leave! Moon's heartbeat slowed down to a healthy rate. Yeah, they were just dumb teens, they weren't gonna find her.
Mud squished. Yep, that sounded like they were leaving. One of the squishing sounds stopped. "Hey, am I crazy or is that blood on the window glass there?" Moon froze. She looked down at her hands. Blood dripped down her palms. Some pieces of glass were still stuck in the wounds, too. Weird, it really didn't hurt that bad right now.
"Leave it, man. If anybody asks, we didn't see nothin,'" the skeptical grunt sighed. "If someone did break in, we'd know, right?" The observant one grunted as the two walked away for good.
A huge grin came across Moon's face. She hadn't been caught. She hadn't been caught! She bit down on her lip to keep from laughing. Take that, numbskulls! Moon - one, Skulls - nil. Moon stood up and looked out the window. No one was watching. Now, was there a backdoor or a window she could get out of without hurting herself more?
Oh no, there was something better. There was a front door that led into one of the greatest scenes Moon had ever witnessed. Shuppet was flying around the open area in front of the mansion. Several grunts were chasing her partner around, quite unsuccessfully at that. They were jumping around, slipping on the wet cobblestone, or just straight up running into each other. Moon laughed quietly. This was the perfect opportunity to get into the mansion!
Moon slipped through a gap in the intricate fence and by the unsuspecting grunts. This time, she was extra careful to make sure her footing was stable as she passed through the bushes and into the pool area. The pool was empty now, with only a Grimer enjoying its filthy bottom. There was a side door leading into the mansion, which Moon happily pushed open.
The inside of the mansion had been trashed even worse than the outside. Pretty much anything you could think of off the top of your head was thrown about the place, blocking paths and making it tricky for Moon to sneak around. There were more grunts inside, too, but they were easy to slip by. The creaking of the floorboards from their own heavy footsteps hid the taps of Moon's light scurrying down the hall and up the stairs. She wanted to check out some of the other rooms downstairs, but there was quite a bit of racket going on in one of them. There was no way she was snooping around just to get herself caught this far in.
As soon as Moon cleared the stairs, she darted into the first door she could get to. There wasn't as much junk to hide behind on the upper level, so she would have to hide before venturing out again. Surprisingly, the room was a lot more organized than the rest of the mansion. There were pokedolls on the bed, too! Moon giggled at the sight of them. The room looked like it should have belonged to someone nice, not some bully from Team Skull.
She glanced at the cabinet filled with makeup products. One container was slightly cracked. It's contents dripped down onto the shelf. That gave Moon an idea. She peaked out the door. Two vases sat in the corner, innocent and unbroken. Moon slipped out of the bedroom and grabbed one. She tossed it up and down in her hands to judge its weight. Then, without warning, she chucked it over the railing.
The effects were immediate. A loud crash erupted at the bottom of the stairs. Moon slid back into the bedroom as several grunts ran downstairs, most swearing as they ran to see what had broken. Moon took her chance to check out the rest of the upstairs. She could hear a little of the chatter from the lower floor.
"What was that, yo?"
"The Boss ain't mad is he?"
"Nah, he's still upstairs. What's this vase doing here?"
"Yo, look at those idiots outside!"
Oh yeah, Team Skull did have a boss. Moon had heard plenty about him and how scary he supposedly was. If he was here, she just had to get a look at him before she left! This was gonna be so cool! Moon stepped outside onto the balcony. Those grunts from before were still trying to chase Shuppet around, and still failing. There were a few others watching and laughing.
Quietly, Moon started toward the window that served as a doorway into the other side of the second floor. She stepped onto some wooden planks forming a path, wobbling as she got used to the slightly slanted surface. She was almost to the window when she heard her Shuppet cry out. Moon froze. Had it been caught?
Carefully, she slid down onto the roof shingles. They were much harder to get a grip on, especially in the rain. Moon shimmied over to where she could see what was going on better. One of the grunts had released a Mareanie and told it to fire a Sludge Bomb at the ghost type. Shuppet was fine, only surprised. Moon sighed in relief. Now she just needed to get back inside.
Moon turned, carefully keeping balance. She took a step forward. The rain pelted down on her, making it difficult for her to climb up. She took another step.
"Yo! What's that kid doing up on the roof?"
The shout had broken Moon's concentration mid-step. Her foot landed, then slipped out from under her. The world turned upside down as more shouting erupted from below. Hm, Inkay evolved by being turned upside down, right? What an odd thought. What was so special about where your head was at any given time?
Oh no, Team Skull had seen her, hadn't they? The realization came to her as everything slowed down. She wondered what they would do with her. Throw her out? Steal everything she had? Hold her prisoner? Hurt her? It wasn't likely. They were just a bunch of teens, right? No, it was the boss she was worried about. Would they take her to him and-
Shouldn't she have landed by now? Everything was so much closer now.
Everything was blurred.
It stopped.
Moon hit the ground headfirst with a sickening snap. The few Team Skull grunts who had noticed her could only watch as the young girl twisted and fell the rest of the way. One screamed. The other grunts, still busy with the Shuppet, realized something was wrong. Someone ran inside. Another ran to the exit to alert the kahuna of the intruder's fate.
"Plumes! Boss! Some kid just fell off the roof!" they screamed. Plumeria emerged from the kitchen and ran out the door as the grunt ran up the stairs, screaming for Guzma the whole way.
Said boss appeared at the stair rail, ignorant of the disaster. The grunt cried out the news one more time. Guzma's eyes widened as he fled through the very route Moon had just taken. He stopped on the roof, looking down at the child resting in a way only ragdolls should. Plumeria was ushering the traumatized grunts away, giving Guzma room to examine the girl when he finally made it down.
The Shuppet was circling her body. It cooed, whether or not from sadness was impossible to tell. Guzma shooed it off and looked the girl over. She was just a kid, probably only eleven. She had short black hair that had fallen around her head to form a halo of death. Her eyes, grey and distant, were still open. Swallowing hard, the boss of Team Skull reached down and slid her eyelids closed.
A hand fell onto his shoulder. He turned his head, expecting Plumeria or one of the other grunts. It was Nanu, the kahuna of the island, who stood by him. How long had Guzma been hunched down by the girl's body?
The old policeman was fixated on the child, his face blank as rain kept pouring down. Neither man said a word as Nanu bent down to pick the girl's body up. He held her against his chest, cradling her as he headed away from the crowd. The Shuppet from earlier trailed behind him, darting around the policeman's head.
It took a few months, but the incident slowly filtered out of conversation. It wasn't because anyone had forgotten. No, none of them forgot the day an angel fell from the roof of the Shady House. A hole in the wall was found and filled so that no child could ever sneak in again. Patrols were increased and stationed outside the walls. No one outside of Team Skull would ever come in, if it could be helped.
A monitor was even assigned to watch the roof to make sure no one got careless. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it kept curious eyes away.
Guzma never found out what Nanu did with the girl's body. He assumed Nanu didn't tell anyone she had fallen in Po Town, for no one outside of Team Skull ever spoke of it. As far as he was concerned, they didn't need to know.
His grunts found it amazing that he stayed so composed after the whole ordeal. Sometimes he found it amazing, too. Some days he would come back to the Shady House and jump in bed, only to wake up a few hours later with those eyes staring back down at him. He would blink and, with a childish giggle, it would be gone.
One day he asked Plumeria.
"Do I ever see anything weird around here? What makes you think I would have?"
"Just… I dunno, some a' the grunts have been saying crap about moving shadows and laughter. It's stupid, we've probably just got a Mimikyu hiding out or somethin.'"
Plumeria would look at him, apprehension in her eyes. "Well if that's it, then, yeah. I think someone's been coming into my room to mess around with my makeup and… y'know," her voice quieted, "my dolls."
Seeing the trainer who Kukui had him fight in Malie Garden nearly sent him over the edge. Damned childhood insecurities aside, he couldn't stop thinking about that kid the whole time. Every time he looked into that brat Sun's eyes, all he could see were her empty gray orbs staring back up at him from her horribly twisted neck. Flashes of that day kept distracting him from the battle at hand. He totally could have beaten down that brat if it just hadn't been for…
"Guzma! What is wrong with you?" he had screamed. This brat wasn't the intruder from almost a year before.
Except when he kind of was. It was raining that day, too.
The incident with the Ultra Beasts was enough to make him forget for a little while, at least. There was nothing like covering up old trauma with new trauma.
He had nearly forgotten completely until he had to return to Po Town to retrieve some of his old stuff. None of the Skull grunts were there, all had fled after the gang was disbanded. He was just about to open the door to his old room when a laugh sounded from inside.
"Hehe! Look at me Shuppet! I'm the big, bad boss of Team Skull! Uhu, that was a pretty good impression, right?"
He flung the door open without a second thought. No one was inside.
Guzma was on edge the whole way out of the house. His heart nearly stopped when he noticed a little girl sitting at the bottom of the stairs, though. He could only watch, a chill running down his neck, as she turned her head to look up at him with those eyes.
Her hands were sitting palms up on her lap. The red gashes on them were the only bodily injury she seemed to have.
"They're all gone, aren't they?" she asked quietly. Guzma nodded slowly, unable to do anything else. The girl sighed. "It used to be funny, watching them. Now there's no one here. It's boring now." She smiled brightly. "I really liked watching the lady with yellow in her hair! She was so pretty… but even she left after a while."
"So why're you still here?" Guzma growled. The girl seemed surprised by this.
"Because I'm bored." She balled her hands into fists as her face contorted in anger. "No one's around anymore." Her expression calmed. A sleepy smile crossed her face as her eyes closed halfway. "But you came back. You'll stay with me, right?"
"Hell no!" Guzma screamed as he broke through whatever held him still. He stormed out of the Shady House, not once looking back.
The girl watched as he slammed the door behind him. She looked back down at her hands, still red with blood.
"Hey Shuppet… wherever you are now, are you having fun? I really miss you. It's so boring now." The girl turned her hands over, letting drops of water fall onto them. How odd. It wasn't raining.
"That boss guy wasn't that exciting after all."