theoneandonlylordmonkeyknight: Indeed (Shivers)
Iron-ninja: Indeed- the trial is really creepy :D
Gigarot: Such is the misfortune of miscommunication.
Cottonmouth25: I know, right? I don't get why people in-verse call it ugly. But in all serious, Totem Mimikyu is a BEAST- as this chapter will attest to.
The entire room went dark before the Totem Pokemon began to flare with dark indigo aura, making adrenaline shoot through Asalie and the grin spread across her face. The Vulpix tried to jump into the fight but the brunette quickly yanked it back and tucked it under one of her arms."Pell, use spi-"
However the Decidueye wasn't even able to get off an attack before Mimikyu landed a blow into her chest, getting a critical hit right off the bat. Pell was smashed across the room with barely any health left before Ifrit leaped onto the field as Mimikyu called forth a Haunter to it's side. The only light now was from Ifrit's flames and Asalie moved exclaimed, "Ifrit, wait! You'll burn the entire room!"
The Magmorter sneered as she stopped mid-attack as her last flamethrower hit the ghost/fairy type- but to her shock and Asalie's dread, it did nothing as Mimikyu's costume took the brunt of the damage before the head of the Pikachu slumped to the side before it shimmered with orange light and Haunter used hypnosis to put her to sleep.
Asalie tried to heal Ifrit but by the time she had pulled a hyper potion and full heal out, Mimikyu had already used shadow claw and landed a critical hit and Haunter used sucker punch, knocking the Magmorter against the wall before she slumped unconscious.
The room went dark again without Ifrit's flames and Asalie tried to reach for her poke-balls only for the Haunter to suddenly lick her from stomach to face, covering her in saliva and knocking her poke-balls to the ground. Kumonga was released when the net ball fell to the ground and Mimikyu was already shooting under his legs and using play rough right at his belly, making him screech in pain. Haunter used hypnosis next but Asalie was ready, swiftly healing the Araquanid only for his health to take a nose dive when Mimikyu attacked him from behind, using play rough on his back and smashing him into the ground with a harsh thud, knocking him out as well.
She sent Bishop out next, shouting, "Light up the room!" and the Magneton sent out a discharge attack that was able to make the lights above flicker back to life, revealing Mimikyu and the Haunter hissing from the exposure. "All right, now use flash cannon!"
Bishop obeyed and sent the beam of white and red light at Mimikyu, only for it to use mimic and sent Ifrit's flamethrower back- the two attacks canceled each other out before Haunter used hypnosis. Bishop barely avoided the attack before firing off another flash cannon and smashing Mimikyu back- however, Haunter's hypnosis put them to sleep and Mimikyu finished them off with another mimicked flamethrower, knocking Bishop out as well.
Asalie paled as she looked at Ruby's poke-ball. She had never taken losses like this before during a battle with Totem Pokemon, save Lana's trial- and the battle with Guzma was still too fresh in her mind.
Mimikyu tried to use play rough but Ruby swiftly dodged the attack before Asalie could shout and smashed a rock slide down on the two Pokemon. Haunter was able to avoid the attack but Mimikyu wasn't, knocking it out just in time for Haunter to use hypnosis to put Ruby to sleep.
She quickly used a full heal in time for Haunter to lick the Lycanroc from chest to face but this allowed her to bite down HARD on it's tongue and keep it in place before knocking it out with rock slide.
"YES!" Asalie yelled, uncaring for the echoes before running over to Ruby and hugging her tightly- Ruby have a weak grin and gently licked her face while the Vulpix bounced up and down before happily nuzzling the Lycanroc and brunette both.
After she got through the store again, Asalie met Acerola and handed her the pictures. "Ooh, these are pretty good quality," she remarked as she leafed through them. "Have you been taking pictures before?"
"Yeah."
"Well, you got pictures of the available Pokemon- and you got one of Mimikyu as well!" the trial captain chirped. "Considering how hard it is to catch Mimikyu on film, this is a great attempt, so-"
Asalie was already taking out her trainer passport and traded it to Acerola before she was given an indigo crystal with a specter insignia. "All right, here's what you do!"
Acerola handed Asalie back her passport before she crossed her arms like an x then shot them forward- she then crouched down with her hands raised like ears as she crept up and then loomed forward with an adorable cat-like smile.
She then handed Asalie several dusk balls and she put them away. "I'd say it's not a bad idea to have a ghost type on your team but you've already got a Decidueye!"
Asalie chuckled at that before asking, "So, how did you program the Poke-Finder to fire up on it's own?"
Acerola giggled at this. "Hey c'mon now, Asalie- you must know the Poke-Finder doesn't work like that! If you're trying to scare me, you'll have to try harder!"
"But it did- right when we got to the last room, I swear!"
Her giggle became a laugh. "Now I know you're just pulling my leg!" as she looked through the photos. "There's no rooms there besides the store level! I might only be thirteen but I'm not that gullible-" only for her to cut herself off as she came to the last two, her eyes going wide.
"Acerola?" Asalie questioned, confused at her sudden silence.
The purple-haired girl jumped in surprise at being addressed before she gave a nervous laugh. "Whoo! Feels like I got chicken skin!"
"You mean goose bumps?"
The purple haired girl quickly gave a cheery laugh and pocketed the photos. "Well, whatever! Oh, who's this little one?"
Asalie looked down at the Vulpix that had followed them in, where it was trying to nuzzle at Ruby's side while the Lycanroc looked on with a sweatdrop. "They followed us in," she explained.
The trial captain laughed at that. "Wow, you don't even sound surprised- how many of your team members joined you like that?"
The brunette paused and gave thought to this: she and Pell chose one another, Bishop had been watching them ever since they came to the Trainer School, Ruby followed them from Melemele island, Kumonga followed Ruby and Ifrit followed her from Wela Volcano Park-
Arceus Almighty, 5/6th of the team's stalked me or my team members before I caught them.
Acerola was already laughing just at Asalie taking pause to think it over. "Usually trainers go after Pokemon, not the other way around!" she wheezed.
The brunette blushed before turning to the Vulpix. "So," she said, "you'd like to join?"
Ruby was already shaking her head but the Vulpix quickly nodded eagerly. Asalie took out a heal ball and tapped it on the Vulpix's nose before it sucked it inside- the Lycanroc gave Asalie an angry scowl and the brunette quickly said, "We'll get them straightened out."
They walked through Tapu Village and Asalie healed up her team- Pell, Kumonga, Ifrit and Bishop were all rather put off that they had all been defeated by such a tiny Pokemon, Bishop and Ifrit in particular since the former had type advantage and the latter had been beaten soundly in important battles ever since her evolution.
They all had rather... mixed reactions to their new teammate, the Vulpix that Asalie decided to name Titus. Pell welcomed him in as she did all the other Pokemon however reluctantly, Ifrit seemed to find the ice type hilarious, Kumonga was wary of accidentally stepping on him and Bishop didn't seem to know how to deal with him.
More than anything, Asalie had a feeling that they had already established a solid group, one that each Pokemon fit into- she had seen and experienced this in her games, seen it play out in pretty much every movie where there was a newbie in a group. Not to mention Ruby was offput at how the Vulpix seemed to admire her and kept following her like an eager puppy.
Well, she knows how it feels to have someone trying to get to her now, Asalie couldn't help thinking, remembering how much disdain for the Rockruff she had before- though she had no intention of letting the Vulpix stay if he made her legitimately uncomfortable and she knew that Ruby would let her know such if it happened.
"Vi vi~" Titus trilled as he settled on Asalie's shoulder, similar to how Pell used to roost on her head- his fur felt cool and fresh against her skin, though she had a feeling she'd have to take him off soon-
"What do you think you're doing?! Stop it! Stop it right now!"
Asalie froze at the sound of Lillie's voice and Acerola was already running ahead. A Skull grunt- D- was trying to yank Lillie's bag away from her and the black rage from before welled in Asalie before she let out Ruby. "Rock slide!"
The Midnight Lycanroc slammed a Hypno and a Golbat into the ground with rock slide, knocking them both out in one hit. "FUCK-MUDBRAYS!" D shrieked and moved to run away, but Titus surprised Asalie when his eyes glowed with pale pink energy and froze the grunt in place with extrasensory.
"Asalie-!" Lillie exclaimed.
The brunette managed a smile before her eyes traveled over the blonde's form- there was some dirt on her dress and hand imprints on her wrists. The black rage from before swirled at this and she could feel her face twist from the rage as she turned to the grunt, who yelped in fear.
"NONONONONO!" he shrieked as Asalie grabbed his shirt and started to yank him forward- however, Acerola put a firm hand around her wrist to stop her before turning to the grunt. Asalie tried to get Acerola to let go of her wrist but the shorter girl's grip only tightened.
"Let go!"
"What are you going to do if I obey?"
"Keep him from getting back to his friends!"
"Look I get you're mad he hurt your friend, but murder's hardly-"
"You have no idea what-!"
"Both of you, please stop it!"
The two froze at Lillie's plea and turned back to her- Asalie's eyes widened at the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes as she clutched her bag to her. "Please, stop fighting..."
The black rage didn't leave Asalie but it grew muffled and dull compared to the upset for making the blonde so distressed. She stopped fighting against Acerola and the shorter girl released her wrist in exchange.
"Team Skull is looking for Nebby," Lillie," she told the blonde in a low voice, fist tightening before her other hand gestured to the grunt. "If we let him go, then he'll tell the others where we are."
Lillie's eyes widened in horror and she clutched at the bag as Nebby peeked out and Acerola frowned softly at this. "I see- that certainly changes things," she said. "Assaulting someone without Pokemon is already a crime, but this needs investigation."
Acerola brought out a Drifblim and the ghost type used psychic to drag D out of Titus' extrasensory. "Don't worry- I've got someone who could use this information."
When she woke up next, Asalie's first thought was wondering how her bed was so soft before remembering.
She and the others had spent the night in Aether House after meeting with Lillie. Hau had been relieved at the news that the grunt had been caught and happy that Asalie had won. He had even made a meal with the two children, Lark and Freesia, and they had all gone to bed with full stomachs.
Lillie! she remembered that Hau had told her that the blonde had waited for her to wake up before leaving. Is she still here?!
Throwing the covers off, Asalie quickly ran through the hallway and to the main room. The sun was slowly coming over the horizon and the clock read six-thirty AM. The brunette froze at this, realizing that it would still be some time until the others would be getting up and slipped on her shoes before heading outside and closing the door as quietly as she could.
THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA
The outside was cold and still damp from the morning dew, both amplified by the mountain just down the route. Asalie shivered and rubbed her arms together- if she hadn't been awake properly before, she was now. But the sight of Lillie- and Nebby from where her bag was unzipped- watching the sun come up by the inlet distracted her from the freezing cold.
She walked as quietly as she could over to the blonde and sat down on the drier sand. Lillie didn't notice her yet but Nebby did. "Pew! Pew-ew!" they trilled as they wriggled out of the bag and nuzzled her lap.
Lillie turned and her eyes widened at seeing the brunette. "Oh... hello, Asalie."
Asalie nodded to her with a small, "Hey."
"Pe-e-e-w~" Nebby cooed as they snuggled in Asalie's lap and the brunette smiled faintly at this as she put a hand on their head. "Were you able to enjoy the festival?"
"I got lost a few times but Acerola was kind enough to show me around," the blonde replied, hands clutching at her dress. "I heard that you had a run-in with the leader of Team Skull but you defeated his team."
"Our battle ended in a draw," Asalie reiterated, leaving the reason why out.
"Even still, that's incredible!" Lillie pointed out, smiling a little. "You just keep getting stronger and stronger."
The brunette smiled faintly at the praise- she didn't feel strong still but she hoped her team felt that way.
The next five or so minutes consisted of awkward silence and slight shuffling as the two girl tried to drag it out without addressing the Donphan in the room.
"Are you okay? He didn't hurt you, did he?" Asalie asked worriedly.
"No- I just wanted to go on a stroll on my own, to see what it must feel like to be a trainer," she said softly. "Hapu and I went our separate ways but Nebby tried to get out of my bag again..."
"Ah," she remarked before Lillie began ruffling through her bag and held up a package to the brunette. "I... I bought this for you, back in Malie City..." she mumbled, face red and expression saddened.
Asalie accepted the package and opened it up- her eyes widened at the sight of five luxury balls. She could never afford the more pricey balls, choosing to stick with the regular poke-balls and the ones she found when walking. "Lillie- thank you so much!" she said with as much feeling as she could.
"Of course- truth be told, I bought them without even thinking!" the blonde admitted, expression sheepish- this made Asalie's smile widen fondly and she realized how much she had missed being able to talk with the blonde.
It's okay- she was probably had something going on that she needed to take care of, she thought, trying to ignore the budding suspicion and black anger. "So, were you and Hapu able to check out the Ruins of Abundance yet?"
"The sandstorm was too violent to get through at the time, so we decided to wait until it was a bit calmer," Lillie replied.
"Okay... can I still come with? Hapu did offer to take us both."
"Oh-! O-of course. You're not going to wear what you had before, are you?"
The blonde's expression was oddly hopeful as Asalie shook her head. "Nah- skirts are nice but I stuck to shorts and pants for a reason."
Lusamine'll understand.
The blonde seemed to perk up at this and said, "Hapu said she'd meet me at Route 13- we can go see her once it becomes lighter!"
Once it was around eight o'clock, Asalie got her things together and met Lillie to walk down to Route 13. Sure enough, Hapu was there, her Mudsale drinking deeply from the spring. "Good to see you Lillie, Asalie. You didn't run into any trouble while I was gone?"
"It's all right- Asalie and Acerola were able to take of it."
The shorter girl nodded to this and to Asalie. "Was Ipo able to help you?"
"Yeah- thanks for giving me that function, by the way. Also, how do you know her name?"
"How d'ya think I got around the islands the first time around?"
"... fair enough," Asalie decided while Hapu's Mudsale looked decidedly unamused.
The shorter girl nodded mellowly before looking towards the captain's barricade blocking off the Haina Desert. "Let's go see if the storms have calmed down somewhat."
"THIS CAN'T POSSIBLY BE CONSIDERED 'CALM', IN ANY SENSE OF THE WORD!" Asalie screamed as she struggled against the wind and sand, the latter finding it's way into her clothes despite her best efforts.
"Compared to when we last tried to venture out here, this is far more tolerable!" Hapu called back, trying not to elbow Lillie from where she clung to the shorter girl.
Asalie curse was cut short by inhaling sand and she spent the next thirty seconds trying to spit it out before having to stop to catch up to Hapu. Sandstorms had skyrocketed to her most hated weather- at the very least, she had more protection against freezing sleet than millions of tiny grains of sand finding it's way into everything she was wearing and chaffing against her exposed skin that was sure to leave some form of rash!
Well, this has been another area that I will never backtrack to, ever! Asalie thought with a scowl as she struggled to guide Ipo to follow after Hapu's Mudsale, running into a hiker in the process.
"You ladies doin' all right out here?" the hiker called over the wind.
"We're doing just fine, sir!" Hapu called back. "Yourself?"
"Could be better!"
Along the way, they ran into a small statue- Asalie recognized the contraption as the same kind of statue that held the Normalium-Z. Hapu held her hand up to stop the brunette and picked up a smooth rock, testing it for a moment before plucking the Z-Crystal out and replacing it with the stone.
"A Z-Crystal, Psychium I'd wager," Hapu said, holding the pink crystal with an eye insignia for them to see before tossing it over to Asalie. "I've already got one."
"Thanks."
As they continued on, Lillie exclaimed, "I see something glinting up ahead! Might it be another Z-Crystal?"
Two Z-Crystals in one day- and not given by a trial captain, former or otherwise? Asalie thought as she directed Ipo over.
Lillie slid off of Mudsale's back and tried to dig through the sand before her hat was nearly blown away. "No-!" she cried out, trying to run after it.
"Wait, don't!" Asalie shouted but the blonde had already stumbled over a Sandile, who was not at all pleased at being disturbed.
"Mudsale, stomp!" Hapu barked, the ground type quickly stomping down- however, the ground/dark type was far quicker and dodged the blows before ramming right into Hapu's leg.
She jumped to dodge but landed wrong and Asalie heard something snap before Mudsale stomped the Sandile into the ground.
"Are you all right-?" Lillie began before she yanked her hat to her chest to keep it from flying away.
"Really?" Asalie couldn't help snapping at the blonde over Hapu's affirmation. "That hat's caused more trouble than it's worth- why bother holding onto it?!"
Lillie's eyes narrowed in anger and she retorted, "Well how would you like it if your jacket blew away and I snapped at you for trying to get it back?"
The brunette was surprised at this but was too annoyed to care. "I actually need it- a hat is just an accessory!"
"It didn't stop you from grabbing it before!"
"If you two would calm down for a moment," Hapu said as she got between the two of them- she was holding a brilliant blue shard and then handed it to Lillie. "This'll fetch quite a price if you sell it."
Asalie scowled darkly at this and snapped, "Can we just keep going?"
The wind seemed to pick up speed and the brunette growled in discomfort, unable to open her mouth without getting sand stuck in her teeth. When Ipo miss-stepped and landed in a burrow, Asalie was knocked off and nearly landed on her head before rolling down safely.
When she moved to get back up, Asalie found a TM disk half-buried in the sand and quickly put it in her bag before getting back on Ipo. "Where did you go?! We nearly lost you!" Lillie exclaimed when she caught up with them.
"Got in an accident and found a TM-"
"You nearly got lost over a technical machine?!"
"Hey, I found it after nearly landing on my head!"
"This is a desert, you need to be more careful!"
"What did you find, Asalie?" Hapu asked, stopping the argument again.
Asalie took it back out. "'Dream Eater,'" she read before putting it back in. "Well, that's useless- none of my team can learn sleeping moves."
"Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it," Hapu advised.
"Are we any closer to the Ruins?" Lillie nearly snapped.
The sandstorm was getting worse and Asalie winced at the sand grating against her exposed skin. Even Ipo was having trouble moving forward and Hapu's expression was a determined grimace as she tried to shield Lillie from the worst of the sand.
Eventually, they found an alcove in the quarry and they rested there- Hapu helped Lillie down from her Mudsale while Asalie tried in vain to shake out the sand in her clothes as best she could. "Please tell me we're on the last leg of this trek," they both pleaded with Hapu.
Hapu was about to reply when she froze, eyes staring ahead. "Uh, Hapu-"
She was cut off when the shorter girl grabbed her and Lillie and forced them down front first onto the sand while returning her Mudsale to her poke-ball. The brunette groaned at the taste of sand in her mouth and was about to angrily retort when she felt herself start to shiver.
Wait, what? It's not cold, it's not even cool! Why am I-
Her thought froze mid sentence as she heard something shifting through the sand, no not shifting- slithering. She looked over to Hapu, hoping the shorter girl would give them some sort of explanation but Hapu looked incredibly worried. The brunette followed her line of sight and felt any lingering annoyance and confusion vaporize on the spot.
Oh this is bad. This is really bad.
A looming serpent-like Pokemon moved through the sand like it was nothing, more than ten feet long and utterly silent save for the shift of sand beneath it's body. She had seen this Pokemon before, in documentaries detailing some of the more dangerous Pokemon in the world. She knew that silhouette belonged to one of the most dangerous poison types in the world and it was slowly but surely making it's way over to them.
Wait, it's a poison type. I know damn well that no poison type would ever go near a desert, not with so many ground and/or steel types around, she realized before her blood froze. But that Arbok might not be a poison type- it must be an Alolan form that adapted to the climate. Oh hell- oh fuck- we're gonna die out here-
Her thought was yet again interrupted when Asalie saw a familiar looking statue mere meters away. She reached out and tapped Hapu on the shoulder and motioned over to the statue- the shorter girl nodded in affirmation and motioned Lillie over. They began to crawl through the sand as quietly as they could, the brunette fighting back a hiss of pain from the coarseness of the sand.
But their crawl was halted when Asalie's head bumped into something and she stole a look up- a dark indigo creature with blades on it's hands and a head like a shark loomed above them with a fanged grin. Asalie didn't even have time to scream before it's scythe-like arm came down to her head. Luckily, Hapu pushed her out of the way before she was knocked aside harshly.
"Hapu!" Lillie cried in fear and Asalie went to grab Pellimore's poke-ball-
- before the Gabite was slammed to the side of a beam of indigo energy and was knocked away from Hapu. The brunette whirled around to see the serpent had fired it- it had no irises and it's sclera was light green but she could feel it looking directly at her. This only lasted for a moment before the Gabite gave a bellow and lunged at the serpent.
"Come on, come on!" Asalie gasped out as she pulled Hapu onto her feet and the three girls quickly ran for the Ruins of Abundance.
Like the Ruins of Life, they came a long hallway with red accents along the walls and sand beneath the bridge across that was sliding down like quicksand- there were five large slabs of decorated stones in their way. Asalie couldn't support Hapu's weight for long and the way that the girl's ankle was bending didn't help matters.
"How is it?" Lillie asked worriedly.
"I can't put much weight on it without pain going through my whole leg," Hapu winced as she pulled her Mudsale's poke-ball out- the ground type nuzzled her gently and the girl smiled weakly, "but I can do this."
She took her page rider out- ten minutes later, a Machamp arrived and the black-haired girl requested, "Pipo, see if you can move these stones out of our way, please."
The fighting type nodded and got to work- like before, Asalie could only stare in amazement as Pipo pushed each slab of stone out of their way and eventually made a path for them to follow. They came to the room at the end, where the same kind of alter and dais in the Ruins of Life was with two staircases, a throne and leaves on either side of the red-accented throne.
Like before, there were several pictures depicted on the throne. This one was of a man with curly red hair and beard with nose ring depicted as either lounging about or beside crops and trees. "Kahuna Keanu," Lillie realized, recognizing him from the book.
"Pew-ew-ew!" Nebby trilled happily as they nuzzled the depictions of Keanu.
"So, what does this mean?" Asalie asked.
"... I have no idea," Lillie sighed as Nebby looked at her with a little smile. "I'm sorry, I wish I could understand..."
"Yeah, me too," the brunette spat with more venom than she had meant. "So, when are we leaving? I'd like to get this sand out of my everything sometime soon."
Well, this journeys just full of landmarks- I've never needed more than one shower in a row before, that's for sure, the brunette thought darkly as she rubbed the third bit of shampoo into her hair, feeling still more grains of sand.
It turned out that Hapu had twisted her ankle and she would have to lay off it for a few days at least. Regardless, she didn't seem too upset about it and was happy to have helped them out.
Once everyone had been healed up, the two of them made their way back to Aether House. The walk over was even more awkward and Asalie felt frustration and anger bubble alike in her stomach at walking with Lillie- she wanted this to be them trying to get to the bottom of why Lillie had been avoiding her but now she was even more upset than before.
Worse, she knew part of her didn't want to. I did nothing wrong, she thought bitterly. I didn't hurt her, I didn't insult her, yet-
The black anger pooled in her stomach the further they walked before making it to the house. The door was open and Asalie spotted Acerola running inside- the two ran to Aether house to find the inside ransacked and in jumbles. Lark and Freesia were huddled in a corner, the Oranguru laid in a heap covered in bruises and the Yongoose twitched on the floor weakly.
Acerola was by the children's sides, trying to comfort them the best she could. "Shh, it's okay now- I'm here," she murmured gently to them.
After a few minutes, they calmed down just enough so that they were coherent. "What happened here?" Lillie asked.
"Th-these jerks with hankies over their faces-" Freesia hiccuped before sobbing even harder.
"Th-they took him!" Lark cried out. "They took big bro Hau!"
That Mimikyu fight was as brutal as it was typed out- that little creature caused me more trouble than any other totem and a hell of a lot more trouble than Guzma's battle did in-game.
I think it would have been a lot scarier if Team Skull took the two kids as hostages- but it would have freaked moral guardians out. Either way, I think they missed an opportunity there.
Also, guess who just saw the new Power Rangers movie? This fanfiction writer right here! It was absolutely amazing and I would recommend anyone to see it, whether you've seen the series before or not.
