The vast ocean presented a stunning display during a beautiful sunset for the Player and Moon as they sat together on the Marina dock, admiring the sight as the sea breeze gently caressed their faces. They sat patiently awaiting Hau's arrival, since the energetic youth was nowhere to be found since they arrived and almost an hour has passed.
Moon let out an exhale of relief as the sound of the oceans gentle waves soothed her. "It's such a beautiful sight."
The Player was initially spacing out but after hearing Moon his gaze shifted over to her. "...Hm? Oh, I'm sorry. I zoned out for a second there. What'd you say?"
"The sunset. I think it's really amazing, don't you?"
He took a look back out to ocean and watched as the sun slowly sank into the sea. "Yeah. I guess it's nice."
"You guess?" She leaned forward to look him in the face to see if that was really what he thought and based on his unchanged expression it was. "What kind of answer is that?" She let out a single chuckle and sat straight up.
Popplio barks with more enthusiasm at Moon, showing that she loved the sight of the ocean during the sunset. Popplio's cheery body language was easy to read for Moon and knowing they shared the same feelings she pet her head.
"Aaaw. See? Popplio knows it's great. 'I guess it's nice' he says. Boys will be boys."She giggled and rubbed the side of Popplio's face. "Right?"
After hearing Popplio reply with a positive tone in her barks the Player and Litten look to one another and crack light smiles, finding humor in Moon's playful statement. "Well, we've waited long enough." The Player said as he stood up. "Hau must've left when we were eating."
"...Yeah. Knowing him you're probably right." The Player held out a helping hand to Moon after brushing the backside of his shorts clean. Seeing that he was offering her assistance Moon accepted his offer hand in hand and pulled herself up. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. C'mon, we should start heading back." Although a bit hesitant Moon agrees with a single nod. As they were ready to leave the Player noticed the trial captain walking down the Marina stair ramp. "Eh? Hold on, Moon."
"Something wrong?"
"Nah. Just a quick hello." He met the captain at the center of the Marina and held up a curious under sided point at him. "Hey, uh, you're the trial captain, right? Llama?"
"It's actually 'Ilima' but yes, that's me. Melemele island's trial captain."
"Right, Ilima. That was my second guess."
"I doubt that." Said Moon in a not so subtle tone.
The Player turned to her with a less than impressed stare. "Come again?"
"Nothin'." She calmly claimed with a taunting smirk while facing away from his piercing eyes.
Captain Ilima found their minor banter funny and laughed behind his fist which he held up to his mouth to conceal his amusement but in the midst of this two males dressed in black approached the group.
"Yo, yo, yo, check it! Whenever, wherever we meet you, Team Skull don't even greet you!"
Hearing this the Player, Moon and Ilima face the two males, they seemed very identical, giving off a twins kind of vibe. They wore two bandanna's: a white skull-like bandanna on their heads and a black bandanna to cover the lower portion of their face. The most identifiable item they had were the long silver chain designed with a symbol to represent the letter S for 'Skull'. Other than that they were wearing basic clothes consisting of a black tank top, shorts and white high-top shoes.
The Player, Moon, Popplio and Litten could only stare at the two, blinking in confusion as a catchy tune played during their strut.
"So, Cap, just give up the Pokémon, yo." The first grunt said while assuming a rather pointless pose with his buddy.
Ilima was paying them no mind, at all, and suddenly remembered something that was actually important, he bumped his fist into his open palm to gesture this. "Oh! You, from the Trainers' School! Already made your way to Hau'oli, hmm?"
The Player and Moon were disregarding the two males as well. Whoever they were they didn't seem relevant enough to warrant any real attention. "Mhm." The Player replied, "Spent most of the day at the beach with Popplio and my friend. This is Moon by the way."
"Nice to meet you." Moon gave the captain a bright smile to show her enthusiasm for their introduction.
"The pleasure is all mine, Moon." Ilima replied.
Seeing that they were being ignored the two males ran up to the group to get their attention, feeling their personal space was being invaded they actually managed to get the groups attention. "What, what?! Why you trying to act hard when we're already hard as bone out here, homie?"
"Yo, let's check these fools."
The two males were doing an assortment of weird bodily gestures while they spoke, it was almost like they were trying to mimic a dance of some kind. Seeing them nearly made Moon burst out into laughter, the Player was more entertained than threatened.
"Is this real? Is this really happening? Because I really hope it is." The Player asked while grinning delightfully at them.
"It's realer than the beat down we're gonna lay down on you, yo!" The first male replied.
Ilima shook his head at them. "Oh my...how terrifying..." The irony was clearly evident in his tone.
Moon stood at the Player's side and nudged his side with her elbow. "Let's humor them for a while. This should be interesting."
"Yeah, let's." He said with his voice cracking between laughs.
The two males bring out their Nest Balls and tossed them out, calling forth Zubat and Drowzee.
Seeing his new challenge the Player holds out his hand to the Zubat. "Popplio, you know what to do." Popplio hopped out of the bag and onto the Player's head before spinning down to the ground.
Litten jumped out of Moon's arms and stood beside Popplio. The two starters showing their fangs via a toothy grin, they were seeing this as a game rather than a serious issue, just like their Trainers.
"Yo, check how I change the game with my mad Pokémon skills!" The Zubat grunt spoke out to the Player. "Zubat, check that fool with Supersonic!"
The Zubat opened its mouth and screeched loudly enough to generate purple sound waves that targeted Popplio.
"Dodge it." The Player commanded with his hands tucked away in his pockets.
Popplio rolled to the side and laid on the ground as Supersonic faded away after missing. She looked on at Zubat with a half-lidded glare that taunted the Pokémon and Trainer.
"Let's teach this little girl a lesson, Browzee! Smack 'em down with Pound!" The second grunt ordered.
Moon placed one hand on her hip and held the other out in a somewhat condescending fashion. "I'm the little girl but you're the one starting pointless battles? Makes sense. Litten, dodge it."
Drowzee was already in the middle of rushing Litten so it was only a matter of issuing a command for Litten to react. Drowzee's trunk emitted a glow and threw its head forward, similar to that of a headbutt, however instead of hitting Litten it instead face plants into the ground as Litten jumped onto Drowzee's and before hitting the ground he made a high leap into the air.
"Aw, Drowzee, c'mon! That was whack!"
The other grunts battle wasn't going too well either. "Zubat, make one of those Supersonic's land!"
Despite Zubat's best attempts Popplio continuously managed to dodge every Supersonic that was thrown at her. Every dodge she assumed a new pose to further prove how easy things were for her.
"Popplio, it's our turn now. Use Water Gun."
Just as Zubat fired another Supersonic Popplio sommersaults under the incoming sound waves and was now positioned directly under Zubat who flinched at the sight of Popplio closing the gap between them. With one final grin Popplio quickly fired Water Gun from her nose, without the use of creating a focus point, and blasted Zubat high into the air with a powerful blast.
"Use Ember, Litten!"
While still in the air Litten cries out to the downed Drowzee below and releases a flurry of small fireballs at his opponent, the fur on his back spikes up while doing so. Drowzee was able to pick itself up though not without rubbing the sore spot on its trunk only to be pelted with flaming hot balls of fire. It was set ablaze and ran around in a comical fit while Litten lands perfectly on his feet to watch in run around.
The Player shakes his head and points to Drowzee while looking down to Popplio. "Wanna help it out?"
Popplio happily obliges and fires Water Gun onto Drowzee in an attempt to calm the burn. The Physic-type is completely drenched but the burn has settled, yet Water Gun still did its share of damage in the process, knocking out Drowzee who was now laid out on its back. Shortly after that Zubat fell out of the sky and landed on Drowzee's stomach, defeated.
"NO WAY!" The first grunt stomped his foot at the result of the battle.
"AUGH! That Ember was more lit than my mixtape." The second grunt slouched over in exhaust.
Popplio and Litten run back to their Trainers and received praise for their performances, not that it took much out of them. The grunts return their Pokémon to their Poké Balls and lament on their defeat.
"No fair! I was playing a different game!" The first grunt complained displaying that he was a bit of a sore loser.
The second grunt was ready to hightail it out of the Marina and made a run for the shopping district but not before alerting his partner. "Let's get up out this port, B! Nobody has to know about this!"
"On the contrary I'm putting this on the internet. The world deserves to see this nonsense." The Player was recording everything that happened on his smartphone much to the dismay of the grunts.
"A-yo! That's not cool, man!"
"Forget about it, B! We outta here! We can just dislike the video once he puts it up! It'll fade into obscurity faster than you can say 'Trubbish', yo!"
"Yeah! That'll really stick it to him!"
The Player wasn't paying them any mind, rather he was checking social media. "Aaaaand it's already trending on Chatter."
"I'll have to rechat that." Ilima was casually scrolling through phone to further provoke this.
The grunts had enough and ran out of the Marina. "You'll regret this!" They both shouted while running out of sight.
Now with the distractions gone the Player and Moon share a quick handshake displayed as the two clapping hands, front and backside, into a fist bump which they then imitate the sound of an explosion with their mouths as their fists transition into an open palm.
The two had actually improvised this small gesture but seeing their synergy worked out as an end result they laugh to one another.
Ilima gave a round of applause for the duo handling the Team Skull thugs. "My thanks to you and your Pokémon. You two are naturals in battle, you make quite the interesting team. I'm impressed."
"It's no big deal." The Player tucked his hands away in his pockets once again while trying to seem cool. Seeing this only made Moon roll her eyes and shake her head, though she ultimately found herself silently agreeing with him.
"They certainly talked a lot but they definitely could use more training." She added.
"Certainly." Ilima agreed. "Well, I think I've seen all that I needed to. I do hope you'll come visit Verdant Cavern and attempt the trial – the trial of Ilima!"
"Naming a trial after himself? Ego much." The Player whispered.
"Humble guy..." Moon whispered back.
They weren't speaking low enough for Ilima to not hear them. He lowered his eyes and slants his mouth to the side. "As I was saying! I'll be looking forward to seeing you at Verdant Cavern! It's on route 2, just use your Rotom Dex to find your way and you'll be fine."
"I'll do that." The Player replied.
"I bid you both Alola!"
"Alola." The two returned the farewell, Moon was, of course, more enthusiastic in her tone.
The Player lowered himself down to Popplio to pick her up, rather than having her stand in the back and hold onto his shoulder or head as she normally would he held her in his arms as if cradling a baby. "Guess that means we should be making our way back too."
"…" Moon's eyes slowly shifted to the side, with the day ending and her friends leaving for their challenge tomorrow this was all that she had left.
"Moon?"
She shook her head to snap herself out of her lonely mindset to fake a smile at both the Player and Popplio. "Right! It's been a long day, we should be getting home to rest. You've got a big day tomorrow and...stuff."
Moon slipped nearing the end, showing a frown as well as another eye shift away from him. "Are you ok?" He asked noticing her look.
"Hm? Oh!" She clapped her cheeks using her palms, mushing her cheeks playfully to make it seem as if nothing was wrong. "Everything's fine! Really, you don't have to worry."
"I wasn't."
Moon, Popplio and Litten all sigh out loudly but Moon quickly perks up and uses this to her advantage. "Good! Hehe. C'mon, let's get back."
As she began to lead the way the Player noticed she was acting a bit strange but couldn't put his finger on why. He watched as she walked down the street and tilted his head curiously before shrugging off his own curiosity and following after her.
It was a quiet walk back to route 1, not a peep was said the entire trip back which felt a bit off the longer they went on not saying anything. The Player felt it wasn't in his place to question Moon if she told him nothing was wrong so he didn't provoke her.
They pass the Pokémon Center and stood at the crossroads. Moon for the path leading to Iki Town and the Player for the path leading straight to his house.
"Can't believe how much fun I had today. When you run into Hau be sure to give him my thanks."
"I will. We all had a lot of fun too so when we get back from our challenges let's be sure to visit the beach again."
"Definitely."
Litten waited to see if Moon was going to make a move and tell the Player what was truly on her mind about him and Hau leaving but with each second he realized she didn't have the heart to say anything. Litten reaches out and cries out for Popplio.
"Hmm? Want to say goodbye, Litten?" Moon takes a closer step so that the Pokémon could give their farewell's.
Popplio understood Litten's feelings but with her own words, in the form of the usual barks, expressed that things will work out and pat Litten's head with her flipper. A comically teary eyed Litten sniffled uncontrollably but Popplio smiles on to encourage him to have faith in their Trainers for the reunion they seek.
Moon adjusted her grip around his chest to brighten his mood despite hiding the fact that she felt the same way. "Don't forget about us and make sure you let me know when you guys come home."
"I couldn't forget you. Trust me I tried but waking up next to that face? It's gonna haunt me forever."
Moon didn't know whether to feel happy about the fact that he said he wouldn't forget her or annoyed at the fact that he basically called her ugly but whatever the case she knew he was playing and playfully punched his shoulder. "Oh shut up."
"Hey, I gotta use that arm later!" He said returning the laugh. "Well, catch ya later."
Moon tucked her lips in and nods. "Good luck out there. Bye." She was the first to turn around and began walking down the road, unable to hide the sadness in her eyes any longer.
The Player and Popplio watched her off but as she got farther he finally turned away and walked his own path. As he approached the front door he took out his key with the intent on unlocking the door but just as he was about to insert the key he stopped and turned the doorknob to find that it was unlocked.
Once the door opened the Player sighs and proceeded into the house, removing his black cap and tossing it on the front room table. "I'm home." He called out, now pulling out a chair and sitting down with an exhausted sigh.
Hearing her son from the other room his mom came out of her room and welcomed him and Popplio with a warm smile. "Ah! Welcome home! Did you enjoy your time out, son?"
"Yeah. It was pretty great, mom. And-" He noticed they still had boxes unpacked, "I see you still haven't gotten everything together...like you said you would."
"Oh right. That. Yeah, I'll do it tomorrow."
"Why do I doubt that?"
"ANYWAY! What'd you do today?"
"Spent some time at the beach with Hau and Moon. It was a blast. Oh yeah, and we also ran into these weird gangsters who thought they could rob us."
"O-Oh my! That sounds scary. They didn't they hurt you, did they?!" Being a mom she ran over to the Player and checked him for any injuries. "Did they steal your hat!?"
"No, no. Everything's fine. They THOUGHT they could rob us but Moon and I destroyed them. They were a joke and honestly kinda funny. I'm hoping I run back into them in the future."
She let out a sigh of relief with one hand over her chest. "Next time just let the police handle things, sweetie. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"Funny thing is we were right down the street from the police station and the cops were nowhere to be found. I often wonder why most regions have law enforcement if they don't ever enforce any law against criminals. I mean Red handled Team Rocket on his own back in Kanto and then Ethan cleaned up the remains in Johto."
She gently tapped his forehead to keep him focused on what she was telling him. "Just be careful."
"Meeeh. I will." He rubbed the spot she popped but ceased seconds later. "...oh, by the way, I agreed to go on this island challenge for Kukui. I'll be traveling around Alola to beat the kahunas. Now, mom, I know you're going to disagree, but-"
"Oh! Honey, that's wonderful news!"
"Huh?"
"My son going on a journey of his very own. How exciting!"
"Wait...you wanted this to happen?"
"Oh, love, there's nothing a parent wants more than to see their child go out into the world and explore the land with Pokémon by their side."
The Player crossed his arms and sat back in the chair, surprised that his mom was so pleased with the idea. "Huh. Well, ok, I wasn't expecting that."
"Why not? Every single mother wants their child out of the house by the age of 10 and you're well over that. It's time you experience the magic of a Pokémon journey." She held her hands together with a prideful shimmer in her eyes thinking of all the possibilities that awaited him. "This is so exciting! I have to call all the regional mother's and tell them MY son is finally becoming a man!"
The Player was still trying to grasp the whole concept of this 'out by age 10' thing his mom was talking about but before he was able to question her she twirled her way across the room in a haze of overzealousness to brag on the phone, she sang a cheerful tune all the way back to her room.
The Player and Popplio sat in confusion for a good second. "What...What just happened?" He asked, Popplio let out a confused bark to answer his question."
