Cipher left Ash and his friends with a strict time limit. 48 hours to find and stop them. The pressure was on to stop Cipher before they enacted whatever they had planned on Alola, and the Ultra Guardians absolutely could not let that happen! The first 12 hours were spent combing the rest of Akala Island. Akala and Ula'Ula were the only two islands they deduced Cipher could be hiding, as Hapu swore there was no activity on Poni Island, and they had been all over Melemele at this point. The gang searched all over Akala, specifically near Diglett's Cave, Wela Volcano Park, and Brooklet Hill. Unfortunately, there was nothing…meaning that Ula'Ula was the only place left. After a long day of searching, Ash returned home, tired from searching Akala all day. "Ah…hey, I'm back."

Moon leaned over the railing of the second floor, waving at Ash as he and Pikachu returned. "Hey, welcome back. How'd it go?" It was clear that Moon was the only one who didn't participate in the search for Cipher. She felt like she wouldn't be much help and no one wanted to fault her for that.

"We couldn't find anything…" Ash let out a sigh. The situation admittedly had him a little stressed. They couldn't afford to let Cipher win. "We know that Akala Island isn't where they're hiding, so that just leaves Ula'Ula. I hope we can find something there. We can't let Cipher win, not after what they did before."

"Pika!" Ash's Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"He's so dedicated in protecting Alola…" Moon thought to herself. She then shook her head and slid down the ladder, preparing the food for everyone's Pokémon. For Melmetal, she once again had to drag a large metal beam, but luckily Kommo-o was willing to do this for her so the metal behemoth didn't eat their utilities.

Burnet had just finished making dinner for everyone when Ash came in. "You'll be all right, Ash. You guys have faced off against Ultra Beasts and come out on top. You still have all day after tonight, so take it easy, okay?"

"She's right." Kukui said with a smile. "Take a quick Rest, and then spring back into action tomorrow with a fierce Quick Attack!"

Moon placed her hands behind her back, smiling towards Ash. "Yeah. It won't do you any good to overwork yourself. You guys can do it. I'll hold down the fort here, okay? So you don't have to worry."

Ash couldn't help but grin at their words. It was the encouragement he needed and it showed. "Thanks, guys. We'll get them tomorrow!"

Just outside of Kukui's home, Folly was peering into the house from afar with a pair of binoculars. He couldn't see inside, but he did see Ash walk in and considering how late it was, that only drew one conclusion. "Looks like the boss was right to tell me to tail 'em! So this is where he lives, huh? Ein's gonna love this…!"

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8 AM; 24 hours left on the clock. Everything led to Ula'Ula Island. The group had split up to cover more ground and investigate several areas of the largest island in Alola. Elizabeth, Takeba, Scott Lana, and Mallow were wandering around Malie City when they were caught by Mina, who demanded they hold still for her painting. "Right there…stay still…" Mina closed one eye, attempting to get the angle just right.

"Do we have time for this…?" Scott looked to the others.

"Not really." Takeba sighed. "But something about her gaze made me afraid to say no…"

"Mina's harmless! A little out there, but harmless." Mallow said with a sweet smile. The Shaymin in her arms agreed.

"A little?" Elizabeth blinked. She recalled encountering Mina when she arrived in Alola.

"We can ask her some questions, too!" Lana pointed out. "Maybe she's seen something? We need all the information we can get if we want to find Cipher. They have to be on this Island!"

"Right!" Takeba then turned to Mina. "Hey, so…have you seen anything suspicious around here lately? Like, any weird people who you haven't seen before, etc…"

"Hmmmmm….." Mina tilted her head for a moment. "Nope."

There was a brief pause. Scott cleared his throat before asking another question. "Pardon my asking, but do you know what the word suspicious means?"

"Totally!" Mina gave a smile. "Like, when people are doing sketchy things. Oh, but like, not like the sketching that I'm doing. But sketchy things that are sketchy, you know?"

There was a pause as everyone looked at each other. "…Did you get that?" Elizabeth asked.

"If my life hinged on translating what she just told us, I'd be a dead man." Scott sighed.

Jessie, James, and Meowth were nearby, disguised while sitting at a nearby restaurant. "Based on the twerps being here, Cipher's gotta be here on this island, right?" Meowth asked.

"That appears to be the case." James said quietly, pretending to read a newspaper. "I wonder where they could be hiding. This island is huge."

"That's the twerp's jobs to figure out!" Jessie grinned. "They can find Cipher for us and we'll sneak in once both sides are exhausted from fighting, and then steal all their Pokémon!"

"A wonderful idea!" James and Meowth exclaimed in unison.

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A very unfortunate Officer Nanu was being questioned by Ash, Grace, and Marcus. If it weren't for Ash, Nanu could have gotten away with pretending to be a lazy officer, but with his identity as the Kahuna revealed, he had no choice but to comply. With his legs propped up on his desk, the tired Kahuna stared at Grace. "You wanna go to Po Town…?"

"Yes, it's very important." Grace said with a few nods. "We tried to go ourselves but we were not expecting a large gate overhead!"

"Well, yeah…Team Skull doesn't wanna let people in, and I really don't feel like using the key…so it's a mutual understanding." Nanu said.

"Uncle…" Acerola let out a sigh at Nanu's difficulty. "Even after hearing their story, you won't let them in?"

"I didn't say that." Nanu responded. "I just said I don't feel like letting them in. If they wanna go get mauled by Team Skull, that's on them."

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Ash, you sure this guy's a Kahuna?"

"Yup!" Ash grinned. "He's just…"

"Lazy? Difficult? The worst qualities a lazy person should have?" Grace crossed her arms. Nanu didn't seem to take any offense.

"All those words apply-roto!" Rotom said.

"I'll be truthful with you. I haven't seen anything odd in these parts." Nanu admitted. "If I had, I would've let you know. I may not enjoy having any type of company, but I take my job seriously when I need to." It was then Nanu tossed Ash a gate key. "If you wanna go to Po Town, be my guest. Don't say I didn't try and warn ya, though."

"Not exactly sure how I feel about that coming from a cop and all…" Marcus sighed. "But let's go."

"Thanks, Nanu!" Ash said, leaving his station with Grace and Marcus following behind him.

As they left Nanu sighed, opening a magazine to return to his crossword puzzle. "What an annoyance…"

Acerola left as well, bouncing with each step. "I'm gonna help them look around. Maybe those Cipher people are lurking in the abandoned supermarket. They could be." She wanted to do whatever she could to help. So, with that said, the girl left to aid in any way she could!

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Lovrina and Rui were doing an overall sweep of Ula'Ula Island. Lovrina was riding upon a borrowed Braviary with Rui, glancing around the large island from above. "I can't believe any of this. It's pretty insane." Rui sighed.

"You're telling me." Lovrina shook her head, staring down at the ground for any clues. "I feel like this is karma biting me in the butt for what I did before. I really don't want Alola to suffer like I made Kalos did…"

Rui frowned at Lovrina's words. It was clear that she still had some regrets on what happened. "Lovrina…it's okay."

"No, it's not. Cipher is bad news. I thought we were past this, but still…" The pink haired woman shook her head. "I guess there's no point complaining about it now. We have to stop them before it's too late. I wonder if Ash and the others managed to find Nanu yet…or if they were able to get him to cooperate."

"He's the lazy one, right?" Rui asked.

"Yup." Lovrina nodded. "I haven't met the guy myself, but Looker says he's good at what he does. I'll take his word for it. Anyway, you see anything yet?"

"Honestly, I'm not so sure what we should be looking for…" Rui admitted. "We saw their helicopter, but we don't know anything else. Are we going to run out of time?"

"No way. I won't let that happen." Lovrina shook her head. "We'll find them before the day is over, one way or another! I swear on my makeup collection!"

"Oh, wow…" No one else would have realized how serious this was, but Rui knew that Lovrina was dead set on this.

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Sophocles, Kiawe, and Lillie went to Hokulani Observatory to speak with Molyane. They told Molyane the story about Cipher and he seemed to be pretty curious. "This all seems pretty serious. I didn't realize such things were happening in Alola…"

"That's why we were wondering if you had seen anything from the observatory lately!" Sophocles asked his cousin. "We've looked all around the other islands and Ula'Ula is the only place that's left!"

"Please, if you know anything, we need to know!" Lillie pleaded.

"Hmm…" Molyane closed his eyes for a moment, thinking on anything he had seen in the past few days. "Thinking about it now, I did notice something strange the other day."

"You gotta tell us!" Kiawe said.

"I was looking out over the island from inside…" Molyane said. "When I happened to turn my gaze to Mt. Lanikila. Then, out of the blue, a helicopter appeared from thin air! It was so surprising, it caught me off guard! I kept looking curiously and it circled the mountain. I wasn't able to see where it landed, but I know that it didn't leave the mountain after that. I would've passed it off as normal had I not seen it pop in out of nowhere. It was very brief, but I saw a young woman and a man with a very unique hairstyle in the helicopter. I haven't seen either of them before."

Lillie gasped. "The others said that a Cipher's helicopter teleported away the other day too! I don't think this can be passed off as a coincidence!"

Kiawe dug in his pocket, pulling out pictures of Ein and Venus. "Did they look anything like this?"

Molyane nodded immediately. "Yes, that's it! That's what they looked like! And like I said, I know they haven't left the mountain. Out of curiosity, I started keeping tabs on it and no one's reported anything strange."

"We got them…" Kiawe let out a sigh of relief.

"You've been a real big help, Molyane!" Sophocles grinned. "We have to tell the others!"

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Po Town was even drearier than they could have imagined. Ash, Marcus, Grace, and Rotom all rushed inside the largest building to get away from the rain that plagued the town. "Geez!" Marcus shook his head. "He could've warned us that it was a perpetual rainfall here!"

"No kidding!" Grace was wringing the water out of her hair. "I wasn't dressed for rainy weather."

"I don't think any of us were…" Ash sighed.

"But at least we got out of the rain-roto!" Rotom said. "Still, I did not think Team Skull's base of operations would be so…run down." And there it went, snapping pictures of the run down mansion.

Needless to say they were uninvited guests, approached by Plumeria, who had her hands on her hips. "Who let you in here? We have a guard at the front gate."

"Yeah, he got destroyed." Grace said, taking full credit for that. "And we're very sorry to barge in unannounced, but uh…first off, we didn't exactly know how to tell you we were coming, and second, the officer who helped us was barely any help."

"This is Team Skull's home, so what do you want?" Plumeria lifted a brow. Her tone made it clear that she would have them jumped by the lurking members of Team Skull for any wrong reason.

"We came for two reasons." Ash said. "First, we wanted to see Kasumi!"

"You mean K?" Plumeria stared at the group. "Yeah, ever since you called her that name, she's been holed up in her room. She's not in the mood for visitors, so I'm gonna have to deny you that request."

"Seriously?" Grace frowned. "It's important! I need to see her!"

"What part of no don't you understand?" Plumeria leaned forward, giving Grace an antagonizing stare. She wasn't referred to as the 'big sister' of Team Skull without reason; she wasn't going to allow Grace to further bother K.

"I don't think she's going to let us pass…" Marcus told the others.

"There's a 0% chance she will." Rotom added.

"Move onto your second reason and get outta here." Plumeria demanded. She wasn't in the mood to entertain these guests.

"Is it about that Cipher I've been hearin' about?" That voice came from Guzma, who stood on the second floor, watching the commotion below.

"WHOA! Thug alert!" Marcus pointed at Guzma.

That just made Guzma chuckle. "Plumeria told me all about that encounter on Poni Island the other day. Did ya think we were in the dark or something?"

"Who the heck is this guy?" Grace asked.

"Guzma. The leader of Team Skull." Ash responded. "We're here to see Kasumi because she's tied to the Cipher incident!"

"That a fact?" Guzma lifted a brow. "You came all this way to our home to see one person? I gotta say…you're pretty stupid, Alola Champ." He was being antagonistic on purpose. There was lightning blazing between the gazes of Ash and Guzma as he smirked, and Ash held a slight glare. "If you think we're scared of those weirdoes or anything, think again. Team Skull can handle it."

"They're a danger to Alola! So we were wondering if…" Ash trailed off. It was a long shot and he knew it…

"You want our help? Forget it!" Guzma laughed. "The only thing I'm interested in protecting is Team Skull. These idiots won't let me disband, so the least I can do is make sure they're tough enough to hold their own."

A door from a hallway cracked open. K was peering into the main hall, watching the conversation go down. She heard her name from all the yelling and got curious. "…."

"You should've expected as much from a bunch of thugs." Grace spat. "We only asked since you're a capable force in Alola, the extra numbers would've been nice."

"You wasted your breath." Plumeria said.

"I see that now." Grace shook her head. "Regardless, at least you know about Cipher, so I don't have to tell you how dangerous they are. But if Kasumi gets hurt because of your inactions, I will be back here to make sure you pay." The brunette then turned on her heel and started to walk out the mansion.

"Grace…" Marcus sighed. "Well, thug city has been nice, but they clearly don't want us here anymore. Let's go, Ash. We managed to pass on the message at least."

"Yeah…good luck." Ash nodded and left with Marcus and the others.

"Hah…" Guzma let out a faint chuckle. "I'm not interested in what some big-shot organization thinks they can achieve. As long as they don't mess with us, they can do whatever they want."

"…." K remained silent, quietly closing the door to return to her room. "My name is Kasumi…"

.

.

"So…" Elizabeth began, inching her way towards Mina. Since they weren't really getting many answers out of her, she decided to go for her own approach. "Are you seeing anyone?"

"Seriously? Right now?" Takeba pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Uh…" Mina tapped her chin with her brush. "I'm seeing you guys right now."

"…." Silence from all parties.

"I think she's a little too far out there to understand subtlety…" Scott said.

"I don't think she even knows what that is." Takeba pointed out.

"Okay." Elizabeth took a deep breath. "Would you like to go out sometime?"

"But we're already outside." Mina replied.

"..." Elizabeth had nothing to say. What could she say to that?

"…..Pfffftttt….ahahahahaha!" Takeba started laughing.

"….Pft…." Even Scott, the straight man, was barely capable of withholding his laughter.

"O-Okay, we should really get going." Lana said with a sweat drop. "We have to keep looking, you know?"

"Y-Yeah!" Mallow nodded. "It's for the best we get moving. It was nice seeing you again, Mina!"

"Yuuuup!" Mina waved. "Oh, wait, before you go…" She then pointed behind the group. "Do you know those guys? They've been staring over here for quite a while. Like, since you guys got here. I thought you might've known each other." Just behind the group, hiding behind a tree, were Trudly and Folly. Now that they had been noticed, they were sweating profusely.

The others turned around, eyes widening as they met with the goons of Miror B. There was silence before Lana pointed at them. "THERE THEY ARE!"

"GET THEM!" Mallow yelled right after.

"GAAAAH! WE'VE BEEN SPOTTED!" Trudly yelled and he started to sprint away with Folly.

"BACK TO BASE! BACK TO BASE!" Folly screamed.

"I'M NOT READY TO GO BACK TO THAT COLD MOUNTAIN MAN!" Trudly whined.

Just before the chase could ensue, Scott stopped everyone from pursuing. "Wait. There's no need."

"But they're right there!" Elizabeth pointed. "Well…not anymore, but still…!"

"Did you hear what they said?" Scott asked.

"Something about a cold mountain?" Takeba tilted her head.

"WHAT." Elizabeth's eyes widened. "You're telling me this tropical oven has a COLD MOUNTAIN AND NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT IT!?"

"Ooooooooh. Mt. Lanikila!" Mina chimed in. "So thaaaaat's where they're going. Wicked."

"Mt….Lanikila?!" Lana and Mallow looked at each other. The only place they didn't think to check!

"Mt. Lanikila's like…really cold. So you should bundle up if you're going." Mina continued to say, unaware that the group had gotten the point already. All they could do is stare at the artist as she waved them off with that absentminded smile of hers.

"…I know she means well, but it's just so funny." Takeba couldn't help but snicker. Still, this was just to ease the growing tension in the air. Whether it was by luck, chance, or intentional, they now knew Cipher's hideout. This meant that the battle against them was rapidly approaching and now they had to prepare...

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Next Time: Mt. Lanikila.