In which Diana makes a new science friend, and loses the spotlight for a while.

On a related note, I would say we're sorry for the Colress developments, but we're really not.

Diana used her Firium-Z to get past Kiawe's barricade, and Eli following behind her gave him access to the new location, too. Salandit refused to ride in her ball, insisting that she get to know her new trainer, and Eli allowed it.

So it was two humans, a lizard, and a haunted Pokedex walking through a dark, narrow tunnel, discussing the possibilities of their future.

"So by my guessing," Diana was saying, "there are 18 Z-Crystals, right? One for every type of attack."

"More than that," Rotom interrupted. "Some Pokémon have their own exclusive Z-Moves."

"So 18 that matter," Diana finished. "But I probably should look for the others, anyway...where was I going with this?" She stopped to consider, then remembered. "So once I collect them all, I'll jump right into continuing my science. Probably with Lillie and Kukui, but honestly, I'm not that angry about being replaced anymore. She's with him for Cosmog alone. Then when school starts, I'll go through the summers to try to get qualified sooner, so I can be taken seriously in the scientific community. What about you guys?"

Eli shrugged. "I've never been that sure of where my life was going. My only life plan was to survive as long as possible, no matter who or what came to get me, or when."

"But you're a trainer now!" Diana gestured to the end of the tunnel ahead of them. "Don't you have any other goal? What about a Pokémon-related one?"

"Not really."

"So what are you going to do with your life?"

There was a sudden scream from behind them. They turned and saw Kiawe's barricade going up in flames, and the guard calling out a Seaking to put it out.

"I'm gonna try not to do that," Eli said quietly.

"Good plan," Diana agreed.

"We should probably run," Rotom added.

So they did. They ran to the other side of the tunnel, to the outside, and did not stop until Diana collided with someone. The person, caught off guard as anyone would be, stumbled forward, while Diana jumped back and Rotom hid in her bag just as the man turned around.

She almost apologized. Then she looked up, and the words died in her throat.

The man was tall with scary shiny glasses, but that was not what Diana was focused on. His coat looked too heavy for the Alolan weather, but she'd never been too concerned with such things. Her attention, and Eli's, was focused on the swirl of blue that looped around the man's otherwise blond head.

Then the man adjusted his glasses, and immediately appeared much friendlier.

"I'm going to assume that you did not deliberately attempt to run me over in a stampede."

Diana shook her head. "No. We didn't. I'm going to assume your coat is making noises for a reason?"

"I installed a cooling mechanism so I could do my research in the Alolan heat." Diana's eyes lit up at the word 'research.' The man noticed, and his own mood improved at the sight. "Interested in science, are you? Then allow me to introduce myself. I am a scientist. My name is Colress."

Diana had immediately launched into questions that Professor Kukui hadn't got around to answering, only to fall silent when Colress told her that he wasn't technically allowed to call himself a professor. When she asked why, he was entirely casual as he told them that his research was on the power of Pokémon, and how he had learned "the hard way" that the bond between Pokémon and trainers was the answer to his question all along.

"I could have told you that," Eli interrupted, Salandit echoing his claim at his feet. "And I'm not even a scientist."

"I am," Diana chirped, and Colress immediately gave her a disapproving glance. "Well, I'm an urban legend investigator," she finished, hanging her head in shame.

But Colress didn't judge. "A reasonable start for a girl your age," he decided, "though I wouldn't call yourself a scientist yet. Wait until you finish school or destroy your backyard, whichever comes first."

Something told the kids that blowing up a treehouse was how Colress got his start. Perhaps it was the hair, maybe the beeping coat, but he just screamed 'mad scientist' to them.

"So what did you mean by the hard way?" Diana asked. "Didn't Mega Evolution and Z-Moves clear that up for you?"

"It's a long and complicated story," Colress said, "but let's just say that I have a long history of horrible decisions." When Diana stepped closer, as if she wanted to get examples of said horrible decisions, he started the actual story. "The short version is, I met a girl in the sewers of Castelia City, and she became my moral guide."

Eli noticed how he seemed to speak of this person as if she had a great significance in his present life. "So you fell in love with someone you met in a sewer?"

"Of course not." Colress cleared it up quickly, but was not surprised that he had made that leap. "I grew attached, yes, but I saw her as a friend, or perhaps a pet. She was my favorite test subject. She and her filmmaker friend had good hearts and strong willpower. I wanted to see how Team Plasma could be stopped. And they did it. They defeated Ghetsis, won my loyalty, and I never looked back. Now I work with them and the Juniper labs - doing the things I love with the people I like."

"So did sewer girl come to Alola with you?"

"I didn't ask. I did invite Aurea...that is, Professor Juniper to come along, but an alien abduction couldn't keep her from her work at this time of year." He spoke about the professor as if he admired that workaholic quality. "So I came alone, hoping to encounter promising trainers like the two of you."

He was bribing them with stories, Diana could tell. His smile was genuine, but his eyes were more focused on her Z-ring. She rolled her eyes.

"What is it you're researching? Specifically, I mean, and here in Alola."

"The secret to a Pokémon's full potential," Colress answered immediately. "Mega Evolution, Z-Moves...not that I'd heard of such a thing before I got here...and how a bond shared with a trainer works to make it happen."

"We don't do Mega Evolution here," Eli told him bluntly. "The locals say it's 'unnatural.' Maybe even abusive."

"But Rosa's Altaria and Nate's Lucario say otherwise."

"How can you tell? How do you know they don't turn harmless Pokémon into bloodthirsty monsters who are only restrained from terrorizing entire cities by the sound of the trainer's voice?"

"That's enough conspiracy theories out of you," Diana interrupted. "YOU don't know that Mega Evolution turns Pokémon into bloodthirsty monsters, do you? For a fact? Have any supposedly recorded stories, should they be real, been DUPLICATED, or were they a single case involving a broken Mega Stone, or a side effect of putting a Key Stone in a Z-Ring?"

"Mega Glalie -"

"Looks like it broke its jaw, fine. What about anything else?"

Eli opened his mouth. Then he closed it. Then he opened it again, closed it again, and stared at the ground in shame. At this, Colress actually laughed.

"Excellent! You do have the makings of a scientist, Diana."

"Really?" Anger gone, she was suddenly a normal kid again. "You think so?"

"Of course."

"So can you teach me?"

Colress stopped laughing. "I don't think that would be wise."

"But you're a real scientist! I got replaced when I went to be somebody else's lab assistant, so maybe you can give me your email or something and I can send you a message for internship?"

Colress didn't seem convinced, but at seeing Diana's determination and love of science, he knew he was looking at a younger, saner, more feminine version of himself. And because he knew himself, he couldn't refuse, even though he also knew himself well enough to know that someone like him should not be encouraged. "I suppose, if you promise to not tell my girlfriend that I am corrupting the minds of children again, I can prepare my temporary lab for the proper arrangements."

But before Diana could enthusiastically agree, or Eli and Rotom could stop her, Colress got a call. Without even looking to see who it was, he flinched.

"She knows," he said under his breath. Then, continuing to let the call go unanswered, spoke to Diana again. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cancel those plans, Diana."

"You didn't even look!"

"I don't have to. She knows that I know who it is." He handed her a TM. "Take that with you. Use it if you wish, and show it to me when you graduate high school. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a call to take."

They heard him answer the phone call as he left. Diana didn't exactly eavesdrop, but she heard him mention her - calling her a "little ball of science" and jokingly stating "she could be ours."

Honestly, if she didn't have a decent relationship with her parents, she might just have asked him to adopt her anyway.

Gladion really didn't know why he and Null were still so weak.

Those thoughts had started when he'd first let it out after the Battle Royal. They were in their...home, for lack of a better word, and he felt safe letting it get some more time in for relaxing. He'd turned on a superhero movie and started to think.

He wasn't strong enough to do what needed to be done. Diana might be, and she had friends to back her up. Gladion would even join her team if necessary. But Diana had no self-control, Gladion was not a fan of teamwork or cooperation, Hau couldn't take even helping her out seriously enough, and he'd heard enough stories about Eli to know that letting him near important documents and/or machinery was a terrible idea.

"We're doomed," he said out loud.

Null didn't seem to share its trainer's pessimism, and looked away from the TV to make that clear to him. "Were you thinking of 'Buttercup' again?"

As if he understood, Gladion nudged Null with his foot. "You look smug. Stop that."

"She's a strong trainer, Poliwag aside. You don't have to worry about her."

"The walking flamethrower and a scientific idiot are the closest thing we have to allies. That scares me."

"You have Hau, too."

"I don't count the kid who can't take a battle seriously."

"So what about Lillie?"

"I can't save Lillie and Cosmog without more training! We need to be strong!"

"What we need is a strategy, not strength. Though both wouldn't hurt."

The funniest part was, Gladion had no idea he was having a full conversation with his Pokémon, and neither of them was aware of how deep their bond was…or how important three kids from Melemele Island would be, both to their plans and to Gladion and Null themselves.

"Really, Diana?"

Diana shrugged, her brand-new Stufful in her arms. She had captured it only moments earlier, and her Rockruff's evolution had happened just after. "You didn't try to stop me," she pointed out, to Eli's disappointment. "If you wanted to catch up in Pokémon-catching, you could have said something. But you know I need to catch Pokémon if I'm going to have a control group for my investigations. Getting a female on my team is just a bonus, and gives your Salandit someone to play with."

"I'm just impressed a freshly-caught Stufful is letting you hug it," Rotom confessed. "The Pokedex entry says that it hates being touched and only tolerates close friends touching it."

Stufful made a confused sound, and Diana laughed. "I think she'd disagree with you there."

"But what about having a werewolf as a pet?" Eli gestured behind her, where the Midnight Form Lycanroc was chomping on an Oran Berry, not paying attention to the rest of them. "Don't you think that's a little creepy?"

"I used to play in graveyards back in Kanto," Diana reminded him. "I don't even register creepy. Besides, he's still my Rockruff. He just looks different now."

Lycanroc looked up from his berry, smirked, and shoved the rest of it in his mouth whole. Apparently, he was already used to having hands.

Rotom decided to change the subject. "There's a Pokémon Center ahead," he announced, pointing it out on his map. "We can take a break there, heal your Pokémon, and then move on to the Lush Jungle and Mallow's trial! We have science to do!"