A/N: Guess who's back, back again? It's ya boy.

This took a little time, what with revision and all, but another chapter of The Remnants is here, and I'm very happy to say that. It's time to see how Dexter gets on after last chapter, where he heard the call for help against an Ultra Beast- I hope you enjoy!

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Dexter ran.

The Beachfront in Hau'oli City had once been a thriving, fashionable district of one of the main cities of Alola, teeming with shoppers and beachgoers alike who adored both the beautiful sands on one side of the road, and the stylish boutiques on the other side. Now, like the rest of Alola, it was a shadow of its former self. Inside a shop which used to sell clothes, the naked shop mannequins lay like corpses on the dusty floor, looted of all they had worn by opportunists who had tried to benefit from Alola descending into chaos. Opposite the shops, with their smashed out windows from where people had forced entry, the burnt-out frame of a pickup truck sat abandoned, long since destroyed. The question of what had destroyed it wasn't one Dexter could answer. Nor was it one he intended to stay around and find the answer to.

Up ahead, another pickup truck, bright yellow, had been thrown onto its side, although this one hadn't been destroyed by fire like the previous truck. Squatting behind the hood end of the truck, Dexter took a moment to regain his breath, his hands absentmindedly brushing the Pokeballs on his belt. He hadn't survived a month in what remained of Alola by rushing headlong into danger wherever he found it; just because he was responding to a distress call over his radio from a frightened local under attack from a Beast, it didn't mean he was going to throw himself to the Beast instead. He needed to know what he was up against before he threw himself into anything.

Just to make sure his warning system didn't get lost, he slid his backpack off his shoulders and slipped the pocket radio he had been carrying in his back pocket into the bag. Wiping a little sweat from his face in the heat, he took a swig of water from a water bottle he was carrying, before peeking up over the mass of the overturned truck to check he was still alone on the Beachfront. So far, so good.

Slipping the water bottle back into his bag and putting the backpack back on, he nodded to himself, rolling his eyes at the almost imperceptible delay between him nodding and his shadow nodding. "Right, I'm ready."

Slowly standing up and dusting himself off, Dexter started walking towards the city's Shopping District, looking for the person who had put their distress call out. He didn't know what type of Beast they were under attack from, or whereabouts in the city the Beast was, but if he kept quiet and close to the fences, then hopefully he would be able to find the attacker and stop it as soon as he-

Dexter's head whipped round to the right as he heard a crack from his right, as if a twig had been stood on. A concrete wall to the right of the very entrance of the Shopping District had a large dent in it, as if something had hit the concrete itself, but it was the little green area over the wall and off the side from the road that caught Dexter's eye. It looked like something had moved in the overgrown clearing, something hidden in the shadows amongst the twisted grass and the enormous palm trees, and Dexter creeped closer, his hand instinctively reaching for the Pokeballs on his belt...

Suddenly there was a crash of glass to Dexter's left, tearing his attention away from the clearing. "What the hell?!"

The building to Dexter's left was almost ornate, with terracotta pillars and large beautiful windows that somehow hadn't been shattered- it seemed almost in pristine condition, with even the signs saying 'Alola Tourist Bureau' being perfectly clear. However, the crash of glass had signalled the arrival of two new people on the scene; despite the front door being wide open, two people who looked like swimmers had jumped out of the Bureau through the window, as if in a state of panic. The girl took one look at Dexter and screamed. "What are you doing? Get out of here, run, that thing is coming!"

"I came to help!" Dexter shouted back, holding back from throwing- in the rush, he had drawn his Empoleon's Pokeball and was ready to let fly before he saw the two Trainers. "I recognise your voice from the radio, I came as quick as I could!"

"You're here to rescue us?" asked her male companion.

"Yes, but you need to tell me what I'm dealing with. I need to know what sort of Beast is in there before I try to fight it!"

"Um..." The girl looked flustered, panicked in the moment, as Dexter noted the lack of Pokeballs between the pair of them. "Okay, i-it's got tentacles, I guess, I don't really know-"

"Nihilego," Dexter said under his breath, recalling what he knew and trying to calmly formulate a plan quickly- his Mudsdale was injured, but Empoleon could do the job.

"Yeah, that's the one!" the male swimmer said, nodding. "That's what the other guy who came to rescue us called it, remember?"

"Wait, the other guy?"

Dexter's question would be answered immediately, but not by either of the two people he came to help. All of a sudden a loud crash came from within the Tourist Bureau, and through the open door a series of boulder-like projectiles came flying out into the street, missing the two swimmers as they sprawled on the floor to avoid the projectiles and slamming into a red gateway across the road. Dexter recognised it immediately as a Power Gem attack, but what came next was a surprise even to him; following the attack, an unknown Trainer and their Pokemon came flying out, diving to the ground and rolling to stand protectively in front of the group.

Dexter took in the strange newcomer and their Pokemon immediately. The Pokemon stood by the stranger was a Lycanroc, in its Midday form; Dexter had encountered both types in his brief travels of Alola before the Beasts ran wild, but none looked as powerful as the one before him, a growling mass of muscle. The stranger, however, was completely different to anyone Dexter had seen. Cloaked in a brown robe of some kind that cut off just below the knees and covered their head in a hood, when the stranger turned he could see a colourful mask hiding the newcomers face above the mouth; the facial hair and the large Adam's apple led Dexter to believe a man was beneath the hood, but other than that he couldn't tell much. Black gloves covered his hands, but the couple of scars he saw on the bare legs of the newcomer and on one cheek, along with the burnt edges to the robe, gave the man the look of a fighter.

"Don't just stand there," came the gruff and definitely male voice of the newcomer, as he gesticulated at the three other humans. "Get out of here."

"Who the hell are you?" Dexter asked, quickly, as the Lycanroc's hackles rose.

The stranger turned, realising for the first time Dexter had arrived. "What do you mean? Who are you, young man?"

"I came to help!" Dexter replied indignantly. "These guys were in trouble-"

"I've got this under control." The firm reply came moments before the man turned to face the door of the Bureau. "Here it comes again."

As Dexter and the swimmers turned to the door, Dexter's blood ran cold at the sight of what emerged from the Bureau, clenching Empoleon's Pokeball even tighter. The white hat-like head, the tentacles dangling underneath the floating body, and above all else the disturbing aura of unknown energy that hovered around the semi-translucent head of the Beast and danced on the tips of its tentacle were so familiar. He knew it all too well from his travels, and his face hardened as the almost-Pokemon's body shook, a weird and brittle cry emanating from it like a battle cry...

"Nihilego," said the newcomer gruffly, balling his fists. "Alright Lycanroc, use-"

"Get down!" screamed the female swimmer, and the stranger suddenly realised, as the Nihilego shook again, that it had been preparing a move all this time. As the toxic sludge it had been gathering became properly visible, the Nihilego launched an Acid Spray at Lycanroc, caught like a Stantler in the headlights and unable to dodge...

With a blinding white light, Dexter's Empoleon emerged with a fierce cry from her well thrown Pokeball in front of Lycanroc, spreading her flippers wide to shield the group from the Acid Spray and its harmful toxins. "Emp!"

The stranger turned to Dexter. "How did you..."

Dexter shrugged. "Part Steel type, my Empoleon. Very good against a part Poison type. And I've got a very good throwing arm." He shook his head. "I don't care what you say, I came to help, and you need me to get this under control. Empoleon, Flash Cannon!"

Dexter's starter and stalwart cried out, before firing off the attack almost immediately at the Nihilego, still framed in the doorway. The Beast swooped sideways out of the way, before giving a defiant cry and readying another Power Gem to attack.

"Empoleon, counter with Scald!"

Dexter needn't have given the command. As soon as the rocks came flying towards Empoleon, they were met mid-air by a spray of boiling water from an Empoleon one step ahead of her opponent. As the attacks collided and exploded in a ball of steam and rock fragments, Empoleon was quickest to react, and launched another Scald at the Nihilego, this time landing a sweet hit directly onto the top of the hat-like head.

As the creature recoiled in pain, burned from the Scald attack, Dexter stretched out a hand to point at the Beast; in a flash the creature somehow flinched again as if struck by an attack, its aura of energy completely disappearing. "Now Empoleon, finish it with another Flash Cannon!"

As Empoleon manoeuvred herself to the side of the Beast, she gave a triumphant cry, before launching the beam of light at the writhing Nihilego. There was an explosion...

As the dust cleared, Dexter nodded with a smug smile to himself at the sight of the unconscious Nihilego, sprawled out cold on the concrete by the broken wall- Empoleon's attack had thrown it away from the Bureau and into the road, its many tentacles gracefully trailing behind it like the tail of a comet. "Good job, Empoleon."

"Its aura..." The stranger was now stood behind Dexter. "How did you get rid of it?"

"I didn't do anything. I guess we got lucky, huh?"

The stranger's gaze, his face hidden behind the multicoloured mask, met Dexter's impassive face as he turned, staring for a second to see if the teen's face changed. When nothing happened, the hooded man grunted, returning Lycanroc to its Pokeball. "Suit yourself. You called it Nihilego..."

"You aren't the only one who knows its name," Dexter said, shrugging. "That radio broadcast from the hacker, Edge, reached a few more people than just you. I may not know much about the other Beasts compared to Nihilego, but I know that one well at least."

The stranger grunted again, nodding to himself, before pacing over to the unmoving Ultra Beast without another word.

"What's his problem?" Dexter said, intending it to be for himself, but realising the two swimmers could hear him. "Do you two know who he is?"

The silence was deafening, but the glare from the girl was worse. "Are you serious? That's the Wanderer, how can you not know who he is?"

"The... Wanderer?"

The male swimmer shook his head in disbelief. "He's a hero, man. I don't know who's under that mask, but since about a week after those Beasts turned up, he's been protecting what's left of Melemele Island. Iki Town, the people who've set up a camp on Ten Carat Hill, our little camp in the Meadow... We wouldn't have survived as long as we have without him protecting us."

"Look, I don't know where you've come from, what rock you've been living under, but he's an icon," the girl said, adjusting the strap of a bag she was carrying and beginning to follow her partner as they walked back towards the north end of Hau'oli City. "We'll see you around, new guy. You may want to thank him for the help though."

"Hey, I beat that Nihilego too!" Dexter retorted.

"You only knocked it out."

The three humans and Empoleon turned to look at the man known as the Wanderer, the blunt reply catching them off guard as he crouched over the unconscious Ultra Beast. "Isn't that the point?" the male swimmer asked.

The Wanderer shook his head, prodding a tentacle with the tip of a black shoe and standing back up. "You really think you can survive if you leave them knocked out? You've got to finish the job."

"What do you..." Dexter began to ask, before he realised one thing. As the Wanderer stood up, an outstretched hand wrapped in a black glove was beckoning towards the treeline beyond the cracked wall. Dexter was right to think something was in those shadows, but what it was caught him completely off guard.

As the new arrival pulled itself over the wall with long, black arms, it didn't land on the ground on the other side; its black, talon-like feet seemed to levitate just a couple of feet above the ground itself. The pitch-black mass of the huge, tall Pokemon looked almost like it was made from crystal, but the shadows it threw were strange, as its body seemed to be refracting the very light shining on it. All in all, the hulking, black, spiked mass of the newcomer, and the look of brewing rage emanating from its eyes, were incredibly intimidating.

"What the hell is that?" screamed the female swimmer, backing away in horror.

"Nah, we're out of here," her male companion said, grabbing her arm. "Come on Cass, we've gotta go. This man's got a Beast of his own!"

The Wanderer didn't even look up from the Nihilego to watch them leave; it was almost as if the man didn't care. "You know what to do, my friend."

The new Pokemon nodded, stood beside the Nihilego with him, before a fierce and colourful ball of light began to shine from in front of the creature's face. As the ball grew in size, the creature suddenly threw its massive arms forward, and several viciously humming beams of multicoloured light launched themselves at the body of the Nihilego, to the sound of an explosion...

The Wanderer dusted himself off and nodded as he looked down at the pile of ash at his feet. "Good work."

"Necrozma, the Prism Pokemon, and a Legendary Pokemon of Alola!"

The Wanderer stiffened at the sound of the unnaturally chipper, electronic, high pitched voice that came from behind him. "Is that..."

Dexter didn't look up from his Pokedex, scrolling through the new data as the now-named Necrozma stared impassively at him. "Impressive. He's not an Ultra Beast, if this thing can scan him. How did you find a Legendary Pokemon?"

The Wanderer turned to look at Dexter, and Dexter felt like for the first time he was being properly taken in. "That's not an Alola Pokedex."

"Nope." Dexter shook his head, looking up. "Sinnoh Pokedex, with the National Dex upgrade. Why, can you scan the Ultra Beasts with an Alolan one? Because I can't seem to get any details with this-"

"Nor could you with an Alola Pokedex. They're not of this world."

"Tell me something I don't know. Are you going to tell me where you found Necrozma now?"

The Wanderer paused. "Ten Carat Hill. He saved me from another Nihilego. Stuck with me since. Listen, kid-"

"Dexter, please. My name's Dexter Ray."

"Dexter..." The gruff mouth visible beneath the Wanderer's mask almost twitched with a smile for a second. "So you're the one they told me to look for."

"What?"

"You're the boy from Sinnoh, the boy who's been fighting Beasts since this... disaster struck. You're the one who rides his own Pokemon-"

"You people treat that like it's a crime sometimes," Dexter said, rolling his eyes.

The Wanderer met his gaze. "Not quite. In fact, it makes you very valuable."

"Valuable? To who?"

"There's a group of survivors on Iki Town who wanted me to find you on their behalf. Bring you in. I was scouting the Marina to see if you were out on the water when I heard the radio call, and now here you are. You've been travelling Alola since the Beasts ran wild, haven't you?"

"Well, yeah," Dexter replied, uneasy. "I've got to help where I can, haven't I?"

"Then come with me to Iki Town. You may be able to help a lot more people."

"Do I get a choice?"

"Of course."

Dexter paused to look at the hulking Legendary Pokemon, and the rather savage look still in its eyes. "He isn't going to use that Prismatic Laser attack on me if I say no, is he?"

"Of course not."

Dexter smiled to himself, returning Empoleon to her Pokeball. "You know, I was heading to Iki Town anyway to get some medical supplies. I may as well come with you."

The Wanderer nodded, turning to walk back towards the Beachfront and the outskirts of Hau'oli City. "Good. Then let's not waste any more time here." He paused, turning to see Necrozma still staring at Dexter, arms crossed as if it were trying to work something else, but his own frown lasted only a second. "Come on Necrozma. He's with us now."

Necrozma held its gaze with Dexter for a second, before letting its arms fall to its side and hovering after the Wanderer. Dexter shook his head to himself, taking a moment to look at the smashed windows of the Tourist Bureau and the heap of ash that had once been a Nihilego, and thinking to himself how quickly events had changed. Just a second ago he'd been fighting another Beast off, and now he was in the company of a complete stranger and a Legendary Pokemon, who both scared and confused him in equal measure. Iki Town couldn't come soon enough.

"We'll be fine," he said to himself, as he watched his shadow flicker for just a moment behind him. "Let's see what Iki Town has to offer..."

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A/N: And there we have it. I promise the Wanderer will be unmasked... eventually. Where would be the fun in revealing it now?

Next chapter will hopefully arrive soon, depending on how revision goes, but I hope you enjoyed this one! If you want to review, please be my guest (as long as you aren't flaming, I love to see them), and of course any favourites or follows are always appreciated.

Until next time,

Ya boy.