The Alolan sun shone harshly in my eyes as I got off the plane from Kanto. The ride to Alola had been awful. The child next to me had cried the entire trip, and the man on my other side didn't know the meaning of personal space (which I was a firm believer in). Rin and Kiri were pissed at me again for making them go back into their balls for the flight. I would have to give them more treats later.
The flight attendant smiled at me as I took the last step off the plane. "Alola, and thank you for flying with us!" I smiled back and quickly headed off towards the baggage area. I knew the baggage claim would take forever, and I wanted to start my Passage as soon as possible.
"Alola cousin!" a voice called, and I turned to see a tall, tanned man wearing nothing but swim trunks and a lab coat waving at me. Next to him was a girl that looked around my age. She was a beauty, with long, platinum blonde hair and striking green eyes. Unlike the shirtless man, she was fully dressed in a long white sundress that fell to her knees.
"Professor Kukui!" I exclaimed, running toward the man. I launched myself at him, making him grunt with effort as he struggled to hold me up.
"Seriously Ember? You're not five anymore." he laughed, hugging me back. Kukui was a close associate of my mother's. They were best friends in college and had many work projects together over the years. As a result, I had grown up around Kukui. To me, he was the father I never had.
"I know, but that's tradition." I shot back as he set me on the ground.
"Fair enough. I don't believe you've met Lillie yet." he said, gesturing to the pretty girl next to him. She took the hint and introduced herself.
"I'm Lillie Everlue. Professor Kukui was nice enough to take me in this year. I work for him as his research assistant." She offered her hand to me.
"Ember Labrie." I said, taking her hand in a firm shake. "I'm here to complete my Passage. Nice to meet you!"
"Charmed." she simply said, smiling slightly.
"Well, we're just waiting on one more person, then we should be good to go." I turned toward Kukui, confused.
"One more person? You were expecting someone else on this flight?" I asked. He hadn't mentioned this to me at all.
"Just wait," Kukui said, smiling devilishly. "I think you know him already. In fact, here he comes."
I turned around to see Lucas Rife standing behind me with a smug ass grin on his face.
"Lucas?!" I shrieked, stepping back and doing a double take. "The hell are you doing here?"
"My dear Ember, I so do love surprising you." he drawled, throwing his arm around my shoulder. "Funnily enough, Alola has been calling me, and I must obey. I will be taking my Passage here."
I stared at Lucas, dumbfounded. "You're telling me you traveled all the way to Alola just to follow me?"
"Noting of the sort! I want to complete my Passage here! That's all!" he exclaimed indignantly.
I stared at him for a few more seconds before bursting into laughter. "You're a freaking stalker!" I shouted, crying with laughter. "Lucas Rife is a stalker!"
Lucas glared at me while I struggled to catch my breath. Drying the laughter-tears from my eyes, I launched myself at him for a hug. After looking surprised for a split second, he caught me effortlessly, and I watched his angry glare change to a breathtaking smile that would knock out every girl for miles. "But seriously, thank you, I said tightening the hug. I'm glad I don't have to do this alone."
"Anything for you, Em." he said, giving me a look I couldn't quite decipher.
"All right, we can hug later!" Kukui exclaimed, interrupting Lucas's stare. "We need to get y'all's apartment set up!"
"Y'all's?" I asked dubiously. "As in we're sharing one?"
"I only have one extra house!" Kukui said. "Don't complain, you get a free house! And an unexpected roommate!"
Kukui had been kind enough to give us his old house after he moved out. It was old and run down due to his experiments, but I was excited about the prospect of fixing it up. At least I could use Lucas for heavy labor now. And honestly, I was excited to live with him. We had practically lived in each other's houses as kids anyway. Just because we had stopped having sleepovers around 14 didn't mean we couldn't live together. I beamed at Lucas and grabbed my suitcase, heading towards the professor's car. This was going to be fun.
Lucas
The Professor did not just say that. There was no way he would make a red-blooded male live alone with a woman like a beautiful woman that he couldn't touch. Even if they were childhood friends. Especially if they were childhood friends. Strangers could have a one night stand with zero consequences. If I tried anything toward Ember thoughtlessly, I'd lose everything I had worked for. Maybe even Ember.
"This will be just like those sleepovers we had when we were little!" Ember exclaimed, all smiles. I inwardly cringed at the memory. Those had been fun until I had hit puberty. Then they were torture. I still vividly remember trying to calm down both my rapidly beating heart and...other areas of the body. As soon as we turned 14 I had ended them, much to Ember's dismay. I had felt bad, but one too many nights of blue balls had taken its toll on me. Luckily Ember was dense as hell when it came to romance.
The car pulled to a stop outside of our new place and I got out, praying there would be two bedrooms. To my intense relief, there was, and they were both quite big. The house was actually decent, and would be very nice once Ember and I fixed everything up. We wouldn't be staying here much on our Passage, but if we decided to stay in Alola it would be ours. If I played my cards right, it might be for a long time to come.
The summer sun shone brightly the next morning as Lucas and I walked to the Hau'oli shopping district for the things we needed for the new house. We both had to sleep on ratty old couches until we got new beds, and I was determined to get one today. My back still ached from the awkward position I'd had to sleep in.
Rin and Kiri were both outside their Pokeballs, playing chase with Leo, Lucas's Arcanine. Since Rin was originally from Alola, I didn't have to hide him anymore. Both he and Kiri were thrilled when I had told them there would be much less ball time. I smiled as Kiri batted at Rin with a playful paw and then ran out of range when he tried to retaliate. Those two were the most adorable Pokemon on the planet.
I took my sweet time shopping, towing a grumbling Lucas around with me to every shop I could find. He complained a lot but he didn't really seem to mind. Besides, there was so much to choose from, I didn't even know where to start.
I eventually settled on a mocha and cream color scheme for the living room and a black, red, and white color scheme for my room. After more grumbling, Lucas chose a green and black color scheme. We matched all the furniture we got to the decided color schemes and were talking to an employee about delivery when a bloodcurdling scream that made my hairs stand on end resounded through the mall.
All activity stopped. People stared at each other for a split second, horrified, and then dashed to the entrance of the store to see what all the commotion was about. Rin and Kiri immediately stopped playing and ran over to me, pressing themselves into either side of me in a protective stance. Lucas tried to move in front of me, but I pushed him out of the way and headed toward the entrance. And that's when the screaming began.
People were running away from the center of the mall as fast as they could. There was blood everywhere, and several dead bodies littered the floor. In the center of it all was a middle-aged man with black and white hair. He looked every inch the criminal he was, with black gang clothes, huge gold chains around his neck, and tattoos for miles. A smaller woman with pink hair who looked just as thuggish stood next to him, laughing her ass off as her Pokemon (one that I couldn't identify) tore into a man's side and then proceeded to roast him alive.
Just as I was about to scream in horror, and a hand clamped over my mouth and pulled me back into the store.
"Are you stupid?!" Lucas whisper-yelled, his eyes wide with panic. "They're gonna see us!" But it was too late. A grunt's head whipped around towards the noise we made and started running in our direction. Lucas's face turned ghostly pale and pushed me outside of the store toward the nearest exit.
"Go!" he cried frantically. "I'll catch up when I'm done with him!" I tried to protest but he gave me one more frantic push, then turned around to face the grunt. But there was no way in hell I was leaving my best friend to die. Just as I was about to attack the grunt, I heard a noise behind me and whipped around to see a man standing behind me. He was obviously part of the criminal organization, but his face seemed to say that he hated every second of it. He was very good-looking, with platinum blonde hair and piercing green eyes that seemed to look into my soul. I was shocked into a standstill, but I then remembered where I was and what these people had done.
A boiling anger rose hot and fast inside of me. Who the hell did these people think they were to take away life?! They would die. All of them. Even the alluring stranger that stood before me. He seemed shocked as well, staring at me with eyes like he was a deer caught in the headlights.
"What the hell do you want?!" I yelled, fury coming off of me in waves. "Who are you to play God?!" Kiri, sensing what I wanted to do, rounded on the man, snarling furiously, hackles raised. The stranger seemed to snap out of it then, and with eyes sparking, he simply said "Team Skull."
I stopped dead in my tracks. I had heard rumors all over the airport about the deadly gang called team skull. They committed murder, arson, theft: you name it, they did it. They were currently Alola's biggest problem. And now it seemed they'd turned to terrorism as well.
"Kiri," I said in a dangerously low voice. "Flamethrower."
The man barely had enough time to dodge as a column of fire flew towards him. Muttering a colorful string of curse words, he quickly withdrew a Pokeball from his red and black sweater and threw it toward the ground. What came out of it was the oddest Pokemon I'd ever seen. It looked like it had been constructed out of multiple Pokemon. It has the claws of a bird, the tail of a fish, the legs of an insect, and many other types of Pokemon parts. The most prominent feature was the huge helmet it sported on its head. It looked extremely uncomfortable.
I refocused my attention on the battle and had Kiri use flamethrower again. The beast dodged with amazing speed. I would have to be smart about this battle. I could tell the man was no run-of-the-mill grunt. Oddly enough, he still hadn't commanded his Pokemon to attack. He seemed hesitant to do so. I took advantage of this hesitation without remorse.
"Kiri, psyshock, then flamethrower while it's disoriented!" Kiri raced to do my bidding. She and Rin loved battling, and I had always felt bad about not being able to battle other trainers with them. I would use this asshole as practice.
Kiri's psyshock landed with deadly accuracy, but it didn't phase the beast like I'd hoped. Just as Kiri was about to deliver a flamethrower to it, police sirens began to wail outside the mall.
"Yo Gladion, kill the bitch and let's scram!" the leader yelled at him. "You wanna be locked up this?!"
I turned to look at the bastard, fury still radiating off me in waves. That mistake cost me. The last thing I felt was a sharp pain in the back of my head, and then the world went black.
